South Africa breaks ground for its own deep-space station I DW News

South Africa is setting up its very own Africa deep-space ground station, which will help NASA track missions to the moon - and beyond. Scientists have found that the village of Matjiesfontein, about three hours from Cape Town, has the ideal conditions for a ground station, with clear skies and practically no rainfall.
The ground breaking ceremony has been held just outside the village in the Karoo desert. The project is a partnership between South Africa’s National Space Agency, and the US space agency NASA.
The station will support the Artemis program, which is NASA’s mission to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, preparing the way for human missions to Mars. It is the agency's first major lunar expedition since the Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s.

Follow DW on social media:
#southafrica #NASA #space

[SLjansvrensb.]

more than 45% unemployment. The country struggles with electricity interruptions of up to how many hours a day. But South Africa is going to build a space rest my case!!!I hope they don't use copper cables?!!???

[martytube]

Well putting money into space instead of all the things that need help or fixed in the country seems out of touch!

[thekontuli]

Some 'clever' folks saying South Africa shouldn't build any deep space station/ invest in any technology related project before sorting out internal challenges such as energy; unemployment; crime; poverty etc

How clever?

I'm sure that the South African government never though of that hey😇

>Imagine if China waited until they had sorted out all their problems at home such as social unrest; crime; inequality before building their Tiangong Space Station.

>Imagine if the US waited until they had sorted out all their problems at home such as violence; racism; police brutality; abortion rights; hate crimes etc before installing the Webb Space Telescope.

Logic?

[prakhardubey]

All the best South Africa from India!!!
We Asian and African countries need to rise in every sector.

[lostworld]

South African has potential, just sad that our leaders don’t want to pump money into this field, we have a lot of qualified people who would, develop rockets, our very own space program, astronauts

[stevo]

how many people will work there? i doubt it will do much for the town...

[devdetective]

In 10 years, this will still not be complete and the construction cost will be more expensive. Money will go into ANC cadres pockets

[MarcoV_dj]

South Africa has so much potential and its going to Rise \0/

[kasinomics]

Waste of money, people are dying cause of poverty here in South Africa

[munnik_dnb]

So this is where the money goes, while we sit in the dark

[laurentiusshipipa]

Iam thrilled by this development, Africa is now on a good path as far as science is concerned.

[tylernaturalist]

😂 Let’s call it the “Jacob Zuma Can’t Read Numbers” Space Station! ZA is a failed state, this is hilarious. Honestly someone should stop them before they launch anything, it’ll come crashing down and hurt someone.

[rockrabbit]

I love the railway sign at the end : "195 miles to Cape Town "
We changed to metric 60 years ago but they still haven't changed their sign.
I hope they never do.

[blacklivesmatters]

I'm so happy for the ancestors get that work

[connorrobert]

Remember meeting a guy that dealt with the space program and satellites, but there’s zero political will

Our leaders fill potholes on dirt roads, so I’m not gonna get my hopes up😂😂😂

[scarr]

They should rather spend that money on sorting out the supply of electricity and doing away with daily load shedding.

[victorsamuel]

India is the best and cheapest place for sending satellites into orbit than any other country in the world and successful

[matifi]

Grate, next step would be to send all E2 hablogroup out of space

[nkosikhonantwanambi]

Ouch I really hate that they're in partnership with USA...was there no better partners, anyways!

[guitargas]

"A blessing from prayer" Going against everything that made space exploration possible xD