Yury Borisov, the director general of Roscosmos, the Russian state space corporation. South Africa is supporting a Russian proposal to form a BRICS Space Council. (Sourced/Roscosmos).

• South Africa is supporting a Russian proposal to create a BRICS space council.
• The council would pave the way for collective representation and more space related collaboration between member nations.
• There is a big pipeline of space related collaboration projects that South Africa is involved with.
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The CEO of the SA National Space Agency (Sansa) Humbulani Mudau says South Africa supports a Russian proposal to create a BRICS Space Council, which will align the space-related interests of member states more closely, and pave the way for greater collaboration.

Sansa released a statement explaining South Africa’s support for the proposal this week, following a meeting between the heads of BRICS space agencies in Moscow on 23 and 24 May.

“We see the Russian proposal to create a BRICS space council. We will develop our cooperation in this direction; South Africa supports this initiative,” said Mudau.

Speaking to Tass, a Russian news agency, Yury Borisov, the head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, explained that the council would enable member states to cooperate on space projects more closely and to defend common positions on matters of International space policy.

He said BRICS countries were already collaborating to build a satellite fleet for remote sensing, which could be followed by other collaborative projects in the fields of navigation, manned flights or security in space exploration. 

“Establishing a BRICS Space Council would enable us to solve tasks across these fields more expediently, bring our positions closer at international space forums and jointly defend common interests,” he said.

At the two-day meeting, other aspects of international space cooperation and briefings by members on ongoing and future space initiatives were discussed.

According to Sansa, members were presented with a joint statement for consideration that encouraged “the prevention of [the] use [of] space weapons” and avoiding “the jeopardising of the space environment and the support for BRICS nations space missions”.

Sansa also signed two memoranda of understanding with Ethiopian and Russian research groups to collaborate on space and technology projects.

Last year, the BRICS space heads met in Hermanus for a conference held in a similar spirit.

READ | Russia asks BRICS delegates for help in building a new space station

Russia asked member states for help with a new space station it is building as the International Space Station is heading toward its intended end-of-operation date in 2030.

South Africa has partnered with Roscosmos to operate a space junk-detection facility in the North West, which was opened last year, and has expressed interest in assisting with the construction of a base on the moon, being led by the Chinese and Russian space agencies.

READ | Russia opens facility in SA’s North West to help protect the ISS from space junk

Sansa’s collaboration is not limited to BRICS countries. It is actively involved in projects with a host of African nations and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA is working with Sansa to build a communications node near Matjiesfontein, which will be used to ensure uninterrupted communication for the Artemis project, which plans to send humans to the moon again in 2026.