The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) has signed an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) which will see the latter provide hardware for upgrading the antenna or tracking station for compatibility with the RadioAstron satellite, with SANSA) operating the tracking station while maintaining hardware.
The agreement coincides with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to South Africa to attend the fifth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, which took place in Durban.
The current agreement follows a previous exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes agreement, which was signed in 2006.
Derek Hanekom, South African minister of science and technology, reportedly welcomed the agreement signed between the two countries.
“This agreement not only confirms a strategic role we can play in the area of global space science and technology due to our geographic location in the southern hemisphere, but also provides an opportunity to use space science and technology to contribute towards socio-economic development,” said Hanekom in Durban.
Launched in July last year, the international RadioAstron satellite is equipped with a radio telescope able to gather coordinates and images of radio-emitting objects. The satellite will serve as a space-based very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to complement the capability of the ground-based VLBI devices.
Furthermore RadioAstron will both enhance and support radio astronomy infrastructure investment in Africa by contributing to the socio-economic and capacity building within the continent.
RadioAstron will reportedly also complement the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and other radio astronomy facilities in the continent.
