South Africa is increasingly taking a leading position in the development of space infrastructure. Africa's most industrialized country wants to become a service provider, par excellence, especially for the African continent.

Recently launched three nano-satellites via a SpaceX rocket. These are the first devices in the new South African constellation of maritime domain surveillance satellites called MDASat.

They were built locally, at the African Centre for Space Innovation at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

It is known that the MDASat constellation will consist of nine nano-satellites that will detect, identify and monitor vessels in near real-time to support the protection of South Africa's maritime domain.

The country intends to share the information obtained with other countries in the region that have a coastline.

Blade Nzimande, South Africa's Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, quoted by African Markets said that his department has invested $1.76 million over three years in developing the constellation.

Besides the acquisition of the essential materials for the construction of the equipment, the budget granted by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation was also used for the training of the staff that is part of the constellation project.

For this purpose, a human capital development framework has been established at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

"Through this program, students learn engineering principles using CubeSats as training tools," said Blade Nzimande.

The launch of the three nano-satellites comes three years after the launch of ZACube-2, which was announced as the most advanced South African nano-satellite to date and had been developed as a technology demonstrator for the MDASat constellation.