South Africa’s Space Program Suffers From Lack of Political Will

South Africa’s Space Program Suffers From Lack of Political Will
An Square Kilometre Array Satellite site north of Carnarvon, South Africa, June 4, 2014 (Photo by Wikimedia user Mike Peel, licensed under the Creative Commons Attirbution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs.

Researchers at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University have developed technology that will help collect space junk, which they hope to have operational in 2017. In an email interview, Keith Gottschaik, professor at the University of the Western Cape and founding member of the South African Space Association, discusses South Africa’s space program.

WPR: What are South Africa’s space capabilities, in terms of its domestic public and private space-industrial complex, and who are its major international partners, in terms of space diplomacy and commercial ties?

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