South Africa’s big rocket launch plans

South Africa could become home to fully-fledged orbital space rocket launches in the next four years if the Aerospace Systems Research Institute (ASRI) has its way.

ASRI was officially launched in May 2024, operating under the mechanical engineering faculty at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

The institute’s primary focus is on developing an indigenous commercial space launch capability for South Africa.

It is the evolution of the Aerospace Research Group (ASReg), founded by professors Jean Pitot and Michael Brooks in 2009.

The engineers and their postgraduate students have designed, built, and tested several research rocket motors and successfully launched five out of six suborbital rockets — also called sounding rockets.

Among these are the Phoenix-1A and Phoenix-1B Hybrid rockets, which have had several successful launches, including reaching the African hybrid rocket altitude record of 17.9km.

While instrument-carrying sounding rockets are useful for scientific research and experiments, the hope is that South Africa will expand into launch vehicle rockets that can deliver payloads like satellites into orbit.

Core to ASRI’s ambitions is the completion of the South African First Rocket Engine (SAFFIRE), a kerosene and liquid oxygen-powered engine with three tonnes of thrust.

This engine will be used on a sub-orbital launch vehicle nicknamed STeVe and, eventually, a planned Commercial Launch Vehicle (CLV).

The CLV, which is yet to get its official name, will be a 20-metre two-stage carrier rocket with a payload capacity of 200kg to 500kg, suitable for carrying and deploying small satellites into orbit.

Nine SAFFIRE engines will power it on its first (booster) stage and another on its second (upper) stage.

The SAFFIRE engine’s first testing was conducted at the Denel Overberg Test Range outside Arniston in the Western Cape in June 2024.

This is the same site where ASRI plans to build a rocket launchpad and supporting infrastructure, ready to lift orbital rockets as soon as 2028.

The first steps in establishing this facility are already underway, with a suborbital rocket gantry and permanent rocket engine testing structure currently under construction and set to be completed within the next few months.

These projects are being partially funded by the Department of Science and Innovation.

Below is a video of the SAFFIRE engine being tested in June 2024.

Making the case for African launches

ASRI plans to build a rocket launchpad and supporting infrastructure at Denel’s Overberg Test range outside Arniston in the Western Cape.

It hopes to have the first rocket on the pad by 2029.

While several African countries have launched satellites in the past three decades, all of these needed to be transported into orbit from foreign launch pads.

The continent and South Africa’s first satellite sent into orbit — Sunsat — was built by postgraduate engineering students at Stellenbosch University and launched from the US in 1999.

It was followed by the ZACube-1 built by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), which was launched from Russia in 2013.

In January 2022, three more CPUT-built Maritime Domain Awareness Satellites were deployed into orbit via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Brooks recently told University World News that Africa’s reliance on overseas countries for rocket launches increased deployment costs, restricted where satellites could be sent, and did not provide any control over delays.

In addition, there might be strategic reasons why South Africa does not want to be dependent on other countries, which could deny it the right to enter orbit for various reasons.

Brooks believes a strong business case exists for launching small satellites into orbit from the continent.

“We want to boost South Africa’s advanced manufacturing sector, drive economic growth in aerospace engineering, and create employment,” he said.

“If we launch foreign satellites on a South African vehicle, we can attract foreign income and generate tax revenue for the country.”

“The space economy is estimated to be worth $500 billion at the moment and is projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035. The launch services segment is currently worth about $14 billion.”

“We have determined that we only need to capture a very small part of that market to be sustainable.”

He also contends that there could be social advantages.

“We need to improve the quality of maths and science that are being taught in our schools, and a programme like this can act as an incentive in that respect,” he said.

Embedded below is Brooks’ detailed presentation explaining the plethora of benefits that South Africa could extract from local rocket launch capability during the launch of ASRI.

It includes several videos of ASRI’s multiple successful launches and one viral failure, which nonetheless taught the engineers some important lessons.