No place in outer space for SA’s litterbugs

THE government will now be liable for the activities of entities or citizens from South Africa in space, after its ratification of two pieces of international space law on Tuesday.

There has been increased activity in the South African space arena, with the establishment of the South African National Space Agency and private companies, such as Convergence Partners and IntelSAT, launching communications satellites into space.

With the ratification of the Registration and Liability Conventions, the government is now responsible for any "damage caused by space objects", South African Space Council head Peter Martinez said yesterday.

The council, part of the Department of Trade and Industry, is responsible for South Africa’s policies and regulations on space.

South Africa had SunSat, a satellite built by the University of Stellenbosch, and SumbundilaSAT, a defunct pathfinder, on the national space register, but "in the future there could be other public and private sector entities that will launch satellites", Dr Martinez said.

South Africa had signed these two conventions but had not ratified them because "there was no need. SA was not in the business of launching space objects", he said.

The registration convention provides for the registration of space objects with the United Nations, which would allow for the identification of space objects.

"South Africa is becoming an active user of the space environment and there are concerns about space becoming more crowded," Dr Martinez said.

"In our planning, we have to be cognisant of our responsibilities as a country," South African National Space Agency CEO Sandile Malinga said yesterday. " We now have a duty to ensure that we don’t populate the space environment with space junk indefinitely."

Several companies were interested in using satellites for their businesses, such as car-tracking and logistics companies.

Dr Martinez said this would require a more stringent licensing process. "Licences were given in the past, but the processes were ad hoc … coming up once a decade.

"We expect a more steady stream of applications in the future, so we need a well-defined procedure," he said.

- BusinessDay