South Africa Enters the Space Race, Plans to Launch Satellite Into Orbit
- South Africa has big plans for its future in space and is planning on launching its own satellite into orbit
- The University of KwaZulu-Natal has already designed a rocket system that can launch a payload into space
- Industries related to the project have been engaged and South Africa is moving forward with its own space programme
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JOHANNESBURG - Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has unveiled plans to launch a satellite into orbit.
She is confident in the country's plans to enter the space race by placing its own geostationary telecommunications satellite in a stable orbit.
Source: UGC
According to SABC News, the satellite that South Africa plans to launch would be able to serve the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Resources are starting to be put together and the industries related to the project have been engaged. South Africa is in an ideal position to manage satellites in specific orbits, the capacity for South Africa to have its own satellite exists according to Ntshavheni.
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Earlier in the month, TimesLIVE reported that the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Aerospace Systems Research Group (ASReG) has successfully tested a rocket that could place a satellite in orbit.
This is a huge step forward for South Africa's space programme. The Ablative Blow-down Liquid Engine (ABLE) was designed by mechanical engineering students at the university.
Elon Musk: SA's very own named Time's 'most influential person' of 2021
In what could quite possibly have been an easy guess for some, inventor, creator, thinker, and all-around marvel in the world of business in America, Elon Musk, has earned himself the crown of Time magazine's 2021 Person of the Year.
A well-earned title considering the wealth the Pretoria-born serial entrepreneur has amassed, particularly during what has arguably been the most challenging year for the world.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – his start-up rocket company which has leapfrogged Boeing and others fancying their giant statuses to claim a huge stake in the world's spacefaring future – need only to snap his fingers for the stock market to soar or plummet as has now become lore.
Time reported that the business magnate, boasting a net worth of more than $250 billion (about R4 trillion) which confirms him as the wealthiest private citizen in history, controls two-thirds of the multibillion-dollar electric car market with his company Tesla, which on its own is valued at $1 tn (R16 trillion).
Source: Briefly News
