{"id":637482,"date":"2026-04-01T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=637482"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:12:48","slug":"billionaire-hotspots-at-the-heart-of-south-africas-space-tech-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/637482-billionaire-hotspots-at-the-heart-of-south-africas-space-tech-industry.html","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire hotspots at the heart of South Africa’s space tech industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The picturesque Cape Winelands, home to many South African billionaires, is also the country’s satellite manufacturing powerhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all the local companies that manufacture technology for the international space industry have facilities in the region, which was the historical birthplace of South Africa’s early space race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 1980s, the South African government, under the National Party, established the “Houwteq” facility to secretly develop its own ballistic missiles and satellite capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under increased pressure from international sanctions, the government created Houwteq as a manufacturing facility and testing wing for these projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The location of the Houwteq facility, which has now become Spaceteq, was not chosen by coincidence. The secluded location, at the time, provided ample secrecy for the facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was tucked into the Houwhoek mountains, with Grabouw being the nearest town to the facility. The mountainous terrain of the area ensured that activities could continue undetected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reason was its close proximity to Stellenbosch University, whose contributions to South African space technology remain significant to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While missile manufacturing had ceased following 1994, the facility continues to produce satellite components and spacecraft parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spaceteq and its teams and engineers were involved with several notable satellite projects, some of the first in Africa. This included SUNSAT, the first South African-built satellite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable projects include SumbandilaSat, created in 2009, which aimed to provide orbital observation to aid disaster management after floods and fires across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA) explained that the satellite’s name means “lead the way” in Venda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was built by teams from Stellenbosch University through SunSpace, which would later be absorbed into Spaceteq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SumbandilaSat is part of a closely integrated South African space programme and serves as a research tool to investigate the viability of affordable space technology,” said SACSA at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SANSA Space Operations in Pretoria was responsible for operations, telemetry, tracking, control, and data capture during the satellite’s operational phase. SumbandilaSat has since reached end-of-life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable satellite systems that emerged from Spaceteq include the Export Sat 1, launched in 2007, and the company has shifted to the EO-SAT project 1 under its new ownership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private companies leading South Africa’s contribution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
NewSpace Systems manufacturing facility in Somerset West<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around Spaceteq and its legacy, modern companies manufacturing components for spacecraft have emerged in the nearby vineyards and fynbos, in the shade of Stellenbosch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these is NewSpace Systems, which recently opened what it said was the largest commercial spacecraft component and subsystem manufacturing facility in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company told MyBroadband that its components have been used on over 2,500 spacecraft missions run by companies and agencies worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its Somerset West facility specialises in components for satellite positioning control, including reaction wheels, sun sensors, magnetometers, GPS receivers, and antennas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With this new facility, NSS is also establishing one of the most advanced commercial spacecraft component manufacturing hubs in the Southern Hemisphere,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It designs and manufactures equipment for major international broadband-from-space providers, and the facility was designed from the ground up to meet the growing demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crafting components for satellite constellations is its current focus, with companies like Amazon Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink actively expanding capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other major satellite component manufacturers call the region home, including Dragonfly Aerospace and CubeSpace Satellite Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dragonfly’s manufacturing facility in Stellenbosch features large clean rooms, as well as testing and development facilities. It says that it maintains in-house control of all satellite subsystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is now aiming to produce up to 48 satellites that weigh around 200kg annually, “enabling us to compete with the most advanced agile aerospace companies in the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its most recent innovation is the \u03b7Dragonfly Bus<\/a>, a 50kg high-performance imaging satellite that it says has the potential to revolutionise space delivery by deploying multiple satellites in a single launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u03b7Dragonfly is engineered to deliver five years or more of in-orbit operation and is designed for sensitive imaging payloads,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrialisation of satellite manufacturing in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another major player in the region is CubeSpace, which manufactures satellite control solutions for international partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like NewSpace Systems, the company is actively expanding its assembly lines to boost capacity, with “efforts focused on technology modularity and industrialisation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CubeSpace says that quick turnaround times for satellite components are essential because it works in an “industry where even minor delays can derail entire missions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Building constellations is a defining challenge for many of our customers,” said Mike-Alec Kearney, CEO of CubeSpace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has over 250 customers in more than 30 countries worldwide, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The space industry is following a familiar path, much like the computer industry did, toward standardisation, commoditisation, and true industrial-scale manufacturing,” said Kearney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The picturesque Cape Winelands, home to many South African billionaires, is also the country’s satellite manufacturing powerhouse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":637678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[42200,103948,35907,104174,100370,761,104173,104041,104177,21549,104176,104175],"class_list":["post-637482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-cubespace","tag-dragonfly-aerospace","tag-esa","tag-houwteq","tag-mike-alec-kearney","tag-nasa","tag-national-party","tag-newspace-systems","tag-south-african-council-for-space-affairs","tag-spaceteq","tag-subindlasat","tag-sunsat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637482"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637682,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637482\/revisions\/637682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}