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- Russia has opened a facility in the North West that will be used to detect space junk.
- This will help alert spacecraft such as the International Space Station to threats from space debris.
- There have been a variety of developments with South African space initiatives in recent weeks.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Russia has constructed a facility in South Africa that will be used to detect and monitor space junk in a more timely and efficient manner.
This is according to Irina Khvorostianaya, the spokesperson of Roscosmos, the Russian state space corporation, who responded to questions from News24 about the opening of the "Russian Optical and Electronic Complex for Detection and Measurement of the Movement Parameters of Space Debris".
READ | NASA delegation in SA to 'rekindle' its relationship with the country
The space debris detection facility was opened at the South African National Space Agency’s (Sansa) Hartbeeshoek facility in the North West.
The Russian embassy in South Africa announced the opening of the facility in a Telegram thread on 23 July. The director-general of Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, and Sansa CEO Humbulani Mudau attended the opening.
Both men attended a meeting in Hermanus on 24 July and 25 July, between the heads of BRICS space agencies.
The facility will be used to monitor threats to spacecraft, including the ISS and satellites, with a view to protecting space infrastructure.
There is an increased need for debris detection capabilities, owing to the rapid increase in the number of spacecraft in orbit. This has resulted in more space debris, said Khvorostianaya.
"In 2022, Russian near-Earth space monitoring systems revealed more than 600 violations of the 4km security zone of the International Space Station (ISS), as well as more than 16 000 cases of dangerous passage of space debris objects near escorted satellites," said Khvorostianaya.
In March this year, the ISS was forced to make two debris avoidance manoeuvres within a month, reported Space.com.
The facility will help detect potentially dangerous situations for spacecraft, said Khvorostianaya.
"The complex will automatically detect dangerous approaches of operating spacecraft with space debris objects and accompany these objects, including those that descend from orbit and burn up when entering the Earth's atmosphere," she said.
Russia's space debris detection system allows for the detection of objects from 120km to 40 000km above Earth.
"The expansion of the network of near-Earth space monitoring stations makes it possible to significantly increase the space surveillance area and increase the safety and sustainability of space activities," said Khvorostianaya.
South Africa's space developments
There has been a flurry of space-related developments in South Africa in recent weeks.
Vaneshree Maharaj, the communications manager at Sansa confirmed that Russia invited the BRICS delegates to contribute towards building a component of the new space station that it plans to build.
READ MORE | Russia asks BRICS delegates for help in building a new space station
Sansa also clarified its plans to send South African astronauts on a space exploration mission, following a post made by the Russian embassy to South Africa claiming that South Africa is planning to send two astronauts to the ISS within two years.
Sansa denied that the plans were so concrete. Mudau stated that South Africa was still "years away" from realising its ambition to send local astronauts on a mission to space.
Khvorostianaya said that Russia was proposing to do it by using the Russian "Soyuz" spacecraft.
"Currently the parties have not signed any documents on this issue," she added.
READ | Sansa reacts to claim that SA plans to send 2 astronauts to the ISS
A delegation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was also in South Africa between 22 July and 28 July.
NASA is building a communications facility near Matjiesfontein that will be used to ensure constant communication during NASA's missions into space, including for the Artemis project, which will send humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972.
Gregory Mann, an international programme specialist at NASA who was part of the delegation, said the space administration wanted to "rekindle" its relationship with South Africa.
"We've had a 60-plus-year partnership with South Africa, who were supporting the Apollo programme back in the day with an antenna here. We are looking to rekindle that with this new antenna," said Mann.
