South Africa's Space Program

Abstract

This article analyzes South Africa's space program, which can be divided into three chronological periods. First, was the age of amateurs that took place from 1947–1962. Second, from 1963–1993, South Africa's apartheid regime started various missile projects, including a secret military space launch program aimed at orbiting reconnaissance satellites. Under U.S. Government pressure, this was canceled before the first democratically-elected government came to power in South Africa, and the facilities for manufacturing and static testing the space launch vehicle were destroyed. But, South Africa maintains a nucleus of space heritage infrastructure, including a space launch range with telemetry capabilities, satellite testing, and integration facilities, and aerospace and software industrial sectors. Third, South Africa became a democracy in 1994, and established the legal and institutional infrastructure for a civil space program. Since then, South Africa has started to shape a new space policy, this time with greater public transparency.