It’s well known in the motor industry that many of the modern innovations we have in our cars today are thanks to  developments made in Formula 1. But this article isn’t about cars. It’s about space and whether or not the recently reconstituted Space Programme in South Africa will have a positive knock-on effect in other areas of technology, programming and development.

In the 1990s, continued development of space-related technologies was shut down by the government – auspiciously because there were other areas of our country that needed attention and resource. But in Act No. 36 of 2008, the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) was mandated to co-ordinate and integrate national space science and technology programmes and conduct long-term planning and implementation of space-related activities in South Africa, for the benefit of the citizens of South Africa.