A new deep space ground station being built in South Africa’s semi-desert Karoo region will be operational by 2025 to help track the history of NASA’s missions to the moon and beyond, space agency officials said Tuesday. Through its Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman or person of color on the moon by 2025, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is targeting the inaugural launch of its next-generation rocket ship this month, delayed by weeks due to technical setbacks and bad weather.
“Next week we should expect the launch of the first Artemis flight,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator and manager of NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) unit. “It won’t be until 2025 when we send the third Artemis and the third Artemis will land astronauts on the moon and … the first person to land on the moon (this time) will be a woman. colors,” Younes told.
“It will be one of three stations supporting communications with all of our astronauts on and around the Moon and providing viable services to our entire Moon to Mars program,” Younes said at the signing of the contract in the small village of Matjiesfontein, 237 km (147 miles) north of Cape Town. Matjiesfontein, which is only the third primary site to be developed worldwide, will become part of a network of additional ground stations in the United States and Australia. Designed with an array of antennas, including a three-story, 20-meter (22-yard) diameter dish procured by NASA, the station will help improve coverage and redundancy to support mission-critical missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, officials said.
The station will be established, operated and maintained by the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). Close to key communications and transport infrastructure, the remote site was chosen for its geographical location with clear skies and low radio interference. South Africa has committed an initial 70 million rand ($3.93 million) to build the infrastructure and communications needed to prepare the site, as part of the government’s investment in building its space infrastructure and research base. “NASA wouldn’t have come to South Africa if they didn’t feel we had the capacity to work in partnership with them,” said Phil Mjwara, director general of South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation.
