Cape Town - South Africa's readiness to host the world's largest radio telescope - the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) - has reached new heights with the country's historical hosting of the 62th International Astronautical Congress (IAC).
SA is being pitted against Australia to host the SKA next year. The prestigious space conference, themed "African Astronaissance" opened in Cape Town on Monday attracting thousands of space players from around the globe.
South Africa has said that it was proud to host the summit on behalf of the continent.
Addressing the delegates, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said the SKA was a leading scientific project of the 21st Century. She described it as a "massive and iconic" project for world science.
The minister highlighted several space initiatives undertaken by the country, saying the SA National Space Agency was ready to take a leading role in the country's space projects.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said that with the current changes in world economy "Africa is emerging as the new pole of growth".
He said that it was not an accident that Africa was hosting the event, indicating that South Africa was not a new comer to the space industry.
The minister said that SA's space policy was based on promoting peace and the country was on the verge of concluding a deal with India for use of space for "peaceful purposes."
Davies said that the involvement of Africa in Space activities would help meet challenges of food and energy insecurity as well as telecommunication.
IAC President Professor Berndt Feuerbacher said that his organization had 205 members.
By the end of the conference with more African countries signing up, he said the membership was set to swell to 220.
Feuerbacher said that they believed that "space is not a playground" for rich countries only as it brought value to all mankind.
During the course of the event he added that an African regional group was set to be formed.
The delegates were set to share information on current space progress among a several lined up programmes.
