South Africa's growing space industry offerings will be prominently on display next week in Guadalajara, Mexico at the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) touted as the world’s largest international gathering for players big and small in the space sector.

The South African Department of Trade and Industry stand leads the way to host several co-exhibitors such as the South African Department of Science and Technology, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), the Cape Town University of Technology (CPUT), Spaceteq, NewSpace Systems and the SCS Aerospace Group.

"Our new products and technical abilities to be showcased in Guadalajara next week are well aligned with the IAC 2016 theme: Making Space Accessible and Affordable to all Countries," says Dr. Sias Mostert Executive Chairman of the SCS Aerospace Group, South Africa’s biggest private satellite engineering company. 
“We will focus on our small satellite capability at the expo demonstrating our latest products such as the SCS100, an affordable new lightweight high-performance satellite, and the Phoenix 20 satellite constellation range which extensively uses off-the-shelf affordable NanoSat technology. Both systems can provide near-continuous coverage applied in inter alia disaster management, city planning, border surveys, and maritime assets and infrastructure monitoring.

"Part of our mission is to make this unique satellite capability available to countries with an emerging space program. Developing countries face similar challenges as we do in South Africa with need for increased science and mathematics human capital, vast spaces and limited infrastructure that small satellite programs with high-resolution remote sensing and access to communication can address," says Dr. Mostert.

SCS system engineer, Bryan Dean, will present a paper at the congress with the title Videosat – A continuous observation constellation co-authored by system engineers Bryan Dean, Dr. Lourens Visagie, and Martin Jacobs. The paper describes a small satellite constellation called VideoSat. The constellation is suitable for near-continuous daytime observation of any sub-polar region with a limited number of launches and affordable program cost. See more about the group at www.scshgroup.com.

NewSpace Systems is the satellite component manufacturer jointly held between SCS Aerospace Group and a number of independent UK investors. They will display a wide range of their SmallSat and CubeSat attitude control components at IAC. The company employs European Space Agency (ESA) certified technicians in their ISO 7 class Clean Room, a unique capability for the space business on the African continent. For more information, please visit www.newspacesystems.com.

South Africa’s satellite experts will be rubbing shoulders at IAC with major and established international players presenting new innovations for the space industry.  SpaceX’s Elon Musk is expected to unveil his Mars – and perhaps beyond – exploration plans and mission architecture for a new heavy-lift launch vehicle next week at the IAC. 

Some 3,000 delegates are expected to attend the 67th IAC congress from 26 – 30 September in the city of Guadaljara, the Silicon Valley and cultural heart of Mexico. This annual congress was created by the International Astronautical Federation one of the largest networks of space experts and decision-makers in the world. More information about the congress can be found at www.iac2016.org.

Issued by SCS Aerospace Group