New Year starts with a bang for South African innovation

The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry wishes to congratulate home-grown South African space technology company Dragonfly Aeronautics on the launch of their first micro-satellite on January 3 – the first such launch in 14 years.

The satellite was one of multiple payloads launched into space by SpaceX as the New Year started with a bang for South African innovation. It contains locally produced high-performance imagers that will gather satellite imagery related to agriculture. The entire imaging satellite system was designed and manufactured by Dragonfly Aeronautics, a Chamber member.

Over the next three years the company is due to deliver a further six micro-satellites as part of a landmark deal for the space technology industry and for the broader regional economy.

A noteworthy feature of the Dragonfly story is the foreign investment which laid the foundation for their success. For years the space technology sector has struggled to secure South African government investment in micro-satellite projects, and it fell to the private sector to get things moving.  Global data analytics company EOS Data Analytics has partnered with South African stakeholders in what is clearly a vote of confidence in local expertise.

We hope the success of this project will spur more investment into a sector with massive job creation potential. We also urge all government economic stakeholders to seize the moment and contribute to sector growth. With its well-developed IT infrastructure and multiple world-class tertiary institutions, the Western Cape is well positioned to reach for the stars.

We think it is only appropriate that the latest micro-satellite was launched by SpaceX, a company founded by South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk who is revolutionising the aerospace industry.

As a Chamber we will do everything in our power to elevate the burgeoning space technology sector into a new orbit.