{"id":653753,"date":"2026-06-12T14:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653753"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:27:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:27:33","slug":"eight-south-african-high-school-students-heading-to-nasa-space-design-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/653753-eight-south-african-high-school-students-heading-to-nasa-space-design-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"Eight South African high school students heading to NASA space design competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eight South African high school pupils have been selected to represent the country at the International Space Settlement Design Competition at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven will travel to the United States in July 2026, after qualifying through South Africa\u2019s first national space settlement design competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African event was held on the University of Cape Town\u2019s upper campus in March 2026 and brought together 109 high schoolers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over two days, the students formed fictional aerospace companies, elected leadership teams, and produced full engineering proposals for a permanent lunar settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their proposals were assessed by judges, including University of Cape Town mechanical engineering professor Wei Hua Ho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international competition will include more than 270 competitors from countries across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams at the final will form fictional aerospace companies of 50 to 60 pupils, compared with 20 to 30 at the UCT event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They must structure themselves into departments and respond to a rigorous Request for Proposal modelled on real aerospace industry tenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams will then pitch their designs to judges, including NASA engineers and former astronauts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Jagger Doubell, founder of the South African Space Design Competition (ZASDC) this will be the first time an African country is represented at the international finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe competition has spanned five continents up to 2025. Africa was the missing one. That changes in July,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubell, a 19-year-old currently on a gap year, founded the South African chapter after competing internationally in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he discovered the competition while studying in the United Kingdom and noticed that he was the only South African in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After returning to Cape Town, he pitched the idea of a South African national chapter to the heads of the Space Science and Engineering Foundation in the UK and Aerospace Education Competitions in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubell said he received their endorsement to build the local competition, but had to establish and fund the initiative himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African competition built from scratch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Jagger Doubell, ZASDC founder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wrote a mail merge tool in Google Apps Script to reach every school in the Western Cape, built the website and branding, and raised competition funding through GoFundMe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also coded a socioeconomic scoring algorithm to ensure the National Finals mixed students from vastly different backgrounds into the same teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubell said the Space Science and Engineering Foundation (SSEF) had provided in-kind support through mentorship and advice from CEO Jenny Lyons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said the SSEF and Aerospace Education Competitions organisation made it clear from the start that the South African competition would need to be built locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubell explained that to qualify for the eight-person team going to the U.S., students had to demonstrate exceptional skills in communication, teamwork, and technical design proficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams were composed of pupils from three or four different schools, meaning they didn\u2019t know many of their fellow competitors at the start of the competition, which was part of the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three companies of roughly 30 students each competed at the national finals. The majority of Team South Africa came from the winning company, but not all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do this because there\u2019s no singular person that makes or breaks a 30-person company. There are deserving, capable and outstanding students all round.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students were selected by their \u201ccompany CEOs\u201d \u2014 volunteers from the UCT Space Society \u2014 who were briefed and trained on what qualities to look for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each fictional company had two CEOs, and their selections were evaluated after the event to form the final team. With Team South Africa chosen, Doubell said the training began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the actual competition, students respond to a rigorous Request For Proposal modelled after real aerospace industry tenders,\u201d Doubell explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey then need to pitch to judges, including NASA engineers and former astronauts. This is the international finals, the challenge is tough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said most countries\u2019 teams have been through multiple rounds of events as they were more established organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs such, I am training Team South Africa to step up to the challenge before July.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photos from the first ZASDC nationals in 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Jagger Doubell giving the opening presentation at ZASDC 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time ever, an African country will be represented at the finals of the International Space Settlement Design Competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":653839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[105879,47286,761,105880,1301,105877],"class_list":["post-653753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-jagger-doubell","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-nasa","tag-south-african-space-design-competition-zasdc","tag-university-of-cape-town","tag-wei-hau-ho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653753"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653861,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653753\/revisions\/653861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}