South Africa has been proactive in leveraging the significant advances made in the development of the world’s largest space telescope array in the Northern Cape, with a comprehensive astro-tourism set to be submitted to Cabinet for approval.
Outside the small town of Carnarvon is the South African site (called MeerKAT) of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a global mega-infrastructure project that endeavours to build the most powerful radio telescope in the world. Since the start of construction in both South Africa and Australia (the site for the project’s other array of satellites) in December 2022, a total of 64 satellite dishes have been built at MeerKAT. Phase 1 of the project will see 210 dishes being built in South Africa by 2028.
The astro-tourism strategy seeks to capitalise on the global significance of the project and the wider region’s attractiveness as a stargazing destination, building on the seeds of tourism success sown in pockets such as Sutherland – home to…