The participation of the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) in the International Astronautical Congress 2013 that concluded in Beijing, China was successful. This is the view of the Chief Director of Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace and Defence at the dti, Ms Nomfuneko Majaja.
“Participating in the Congress afforded the South African Space Industry a great opportunity to be recognised at an international scale given the presence of all space institutions and companies that attended and exhibited at the IAC,” said Majaja.
She added that the South African companies and institutions that attended this year’s congress reflected SA’s space capabilities and represented the future of the country’s growing space industry.
Majaja said some of the achievements of our participation in this year’s IAC included the introduction of Spaceteq, a newly formed satellite manufacturing company within Denel Dynamics to the international Space community. Spaceteq incorporates existing space engineering capabilities in SA that forms an integral part of the National Space Programme.
Denel Dynamics was also accepted as a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) thus providing them with extended networking opportunities and benefits.
Of importance for SA regulatory environment was Africa’s participation in the Manfred Lachs Moot court competition as the objective of participating in the Congress is to improve the competitive capability represented by SA’s university of Pretoria, which competed up to the semi-finals. The Space Law Moot Court competition is one of the capacity building programmes in space legal environment.
The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) cemented relationships with its international partners by having meetings with a number of space agencies, including the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), European Space Agency (IESA) the German Aerospace Centre, as well as NASA. SANSA also officially participated in the International Space Education Board (ISEB) for the first time after their introduction to the Board at last year’s IAC.
The South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA) is currently finalising the terms of the licence for the ZACUBE-01.
“The CPUT FSATI also exhibited the CUBESAT which will be launched shortly. Overall, the benefits accruing to the South African Space industry in participating in the IAC is immeasurable. We hope that next year’s congress will provide more opportunities for SA companies to exhibit their space capabilities and thereby contributing to strengthening space human and productive capacity, “concluded Majaja.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 079 492 1774
Tel: 012 394 1650
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Twitter: @thedti
