Refinitiv Newscasts - South Africa station to help NASA track missions

Zuora

08/11/2022 23:00

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Source: Thomson Reuters

Description: Ground was broken at the future site of a station in South
Africa's semi-desert Karoo region on Tuesday (November 8), part of a global
network that will soon help NASA track history-making missions to the moon and
beyond. Trevor Koroll produced this report.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3G0cjYX

Video Transcript:

>> This site in South Africa will soon be a key part of nasa's history making
return to the moon and beyond. Located about 130 mi from Cape Town. Mike, He's
Fontane, will be home to a deep space ground station. The site will help track
NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and person of color
on the moon by 2025. It will include a three-story tall dish. And as part of a
network of other ground stations in the US and Australia, will help improve
coverage and redundancy for critical mission support. Film is Zuora is the
head of South Africa's department of science and innovation. NASA would not
come to South Africa if they didn't feel that we have capacities to do the
work that they want us to do in partnership with. NASa official badger units
was on hand to break ground at the site. We're looking forward to it. This is
going to be one of three stations supporting the communication was all of our
astronaut in and around the moon and provide them viable services to our
entire moon to Mars program. The South African Space Agency will establish,
operate and maintain the station. The site was chosen because of its proximity
to key infrastructure, geographic location and low radio interference in South
Africa has made an initial investment of nearly $4 million and the site is set
to come online in 2025. The same year, NASA is planning to return astronauts
to the moon