The Africa space industry majors in the commercialisation of services and products; it is well-known that companies driving the growth of the continent in the global space industry are mostly Newspace companies, downstream and space-related companies, that are focused on the manufacturing and marketing of products and services, a deliberate move that presents the continent’s space industry as a commercial-focused one.

According to the Newspace Annual Industry Report, 2019, compiled by Space In Africa, 34 commercial companies, both private and public, exist in the Africa space industry which cuts across eight African countries (Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Tunisia), and all of these companies, though involved in manufacturing, are more focused on marketing, sales and delivery of space and space-related technologies.

However, one thing is notable in all this: 21 of these companies are South Africa-based, with ten companies based in the city of Cape Town.

The Evolution of Cape Town as the leading hub Of The Commercial Space Industry In Africa. 

The emergence of Cape Town as the Silicon Valley of the Africa commercial space industry dates back to the 1980s when South Africa initiated its first space programme. The programme aimed to develop an Earth Observation satellite and launcher and component facilities to support the satellite. Consequently, these facilities (satellite integration and testing) were constructed in Grabouw in Western Cape, about 70km from Cape Town, while the launch facility was in a Cape South coast town of Arniston, about 180 km west of Cape Town.

The dissolution of the programme in 1994 led to the redirection these facilities to other uses. However, more direct involvement of the town in space activities was in February 1999, with the building of South Africa’s first satellite, SunSat-1, built by students at the University of Stellenbosch, located in Stellenbosch, a university suburbs 50.5 km from Cape Town. The 64-kg satellite launched as a secondary payload on the United States launcher operated for two years in the low Earth orbit, taking numerous multispectral images of the planet from space and led to starting Sunspace, a company established to advance the development and market some of the microsatellites technologies discovered during the SunSat-1 project. Sunspace supplied several satellite subsystems and complete satellites to both regional and international clients. With the creation of Spaceteq as a new entity of the Denel Group in July 2013, there was an assignment of the intellectual properties and capabilities of Sunspace to the new Cape Town-based company.

Shortly afterwards, there was a rapid growth in the number of companies involved in the development and marketing of space products and services in Cape Town.

Why Cape Town Is The Hub of the Commercial Space Industry in Africa.

Cape Town is the leading hub of the commercial space industry in Africa for many reasons, but most importantly, it is the base of 10 out of the 34 Newspace companies navigating the African space ecosystem, unlike anywhere else in Africa and ahead of Stellenbosch, Port Louis and Cairo.

Reason for this is dependant on some factors which include the population. Of Western Cape total population(6.76 million, current estimates by Western Cape Department of Social Development), 4,005,015 people reside in Cape Town.

Cape Town is the largest African metropolis surrounded by tech-innovative universities namely University of Cape Town(UCT), Stellenbosch University(SU), University of Western Cape, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology(CPUT), that have set up themselves as catalysts of innovation and entrepreneurship. As a result, the city has become the hub of technology, with several of its companies in the space sector involved in commercial space activities.

Secondly, Cape Town’s economic structure also contributes nearly three-quarters of the GDP in the Western Cape. Several international businesses have set up their trading in Cape Town, contributing up to R5 billion in foreign direct investment into the city. It is also reported that 50 per cent of emerging tech companies in South Africa are based in the Western Cape, with the most in Cape Town.

Furthermore, the availability of business-friendly policies by the government makes for growth in business and the number of business outfits. The Western Cape Government has over the years implemented regulations and policies to lessen the burden of procedures for businesses, including the Red Tape Reduction Unit, which seeks to remove bureaucratic blockages to make for an easier and more cost-effective environment for business.

Infrastructure and communication are integral to industrialisation and commerce. Cape Town has invested R1 billion into its infrastructure development and a telecommunications channel to provide network and service to city-owned infrastructure.

UCT’s role in the South African Patent Cooperation Treaty is another factor. These PCT registrations are generally regarded as the first step towards protecting and commercialising inventions on an international scale.

These factors and more have all contributed to the sighting of more commercial space companies in Cape town than anywhere else in South Africa and Africa.

Commercial Companies in Cape Town 

The 10 Cape Town-based Newspace companies making headway in the commercial space industry are:

1. Aerobotics: Aerobotics uses aerial imagery, satellite data, and machine learning algorithms to help farmers identify pests and diseases early.
2. Amaya Space (Pty) Ltd: Amaya manufactures nanosatellites systems and components; offers satellite engineering services.  The company is working to commercialise the nanosatellite communications solutions and mission knowledge developed at CPUT, its parent institution.
3. Astrofica Technologies Pty (Ltd): The company’s services include systems engineering, acquisition management processes, satellite AIT, engineering validation test (EVT), facility planning, and launch campaigns.
4. DeltaV Aerospace: The company specialises in the design, simulation, assembly, integration, and testing of aerospace systems, propulsion systems, and satellite components. Its products include gas turbines, rocket motors, satellite components UAVs; small launchers, liquid engines, and pyro starters.
5. Denel Spaceteq: Spaceteq focuses on small satellite design and manufacturing.
6. NewSpace Systems (Pty) Ltd: Newspace focuses on the manufacturing of satellite subsystems and components. Its product range includes reaction wheels, sun sensors, GPS receivers, and antennae; magnetometers, coarse and fine Sun Sensors, magnetorquer rods, stellar gyros, star mappers, and CubeSat attitude control solutions. The company has exported its products to about 20 countries and has partner and resellers in seven countries across five continents, including China, India, Japan, Taiwan; the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and nearly 50 customers from around the world, including 11 national space agencies.
7. SCS Space: The company offers satellite program management, systems engineering, development of satellite components and subsystems, AIT facilities, and engineering consultancy. It sells its products and services in both the African and international satellite markets.
8. Space Advisory Company (SAC): SAC offers specialist consulting and design for satellite missions and constellations. It develops complete small satellites and subsystems, optical and SAR payloads and other satellite components. Its products include DragonSAR, uSTAR, FalconSAR and Phoenix-20 HS.
9. Simera Sense Pty: Simera Sense specialises in precision space engineering with a focus on optical payloads. It supplies remote sensing payloads and satellite components to both the South African and international small satellite markets. Its products include a series of optical payloads known as xScape100.
10. XinaBox Limited: XinaBox Limited designs and develops modular electronics and IoT components including those used for building nanosatellites and weather experiment in low Earth orbit.

As a  result of sightings of these companies in Cape Town, there has been an end-to-end flow of human resources, investment and revenue in the Africa space industry unlike anywhere else on the continent, giving it the right to the title as the hub of the commercial African space industry.

Cape Town stands as the commercial hub of the African space industry, but still has a long way to go to meet up with the standard of other industrialised cities of the world.