The South African National Space Agency (Sansa) on Tuesday issued a clarification regarding the possibility of South African astronauts being trained and sent to the International Space Station (ISS). A comment by Sansa CEO Humbulani Mudau in bilateral talks with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, on Sunday, reported in a social media post, caused excitement among many South Africans, but this was based on a misunderstanding.

Sansa confirmed that it did have a long-term aspiration to have a South African astronaut or astronauts participate in crewed space missions, for the benefit of humanity.

“We are still years away from the realisation of this incredible opportunity; however, Sansa remains committed to formalising such plans with our space partners in the near future,” explained Mudau. “We will be sure to make the announcement a priority to inspire and excite the future generations of Afronauts to take their place in global space.”

The discussions with Roscosmos were part of Sansa’s interactions with its various international partner space agencies. These talks covered a range of space science and technology sectors.

Further, Sansa was holding discussions with the other Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping space agencies, in Hermanus in the Western Cape province, this week. These included the development of collaborative projects between these agencies, projects the South African agency described as “exciting”. Details about such Brics space projects would be released following the conclusion of the inter-agency talks and briefings.

In the short term, Sansa also noted, the agency and the country would be involved in crewed space missions, through its partnership with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) to develop a new Deep Space Network ground station at Matjesfontein in the Western Cape, to support the Artemis crewed lunar exploration programme. (However, the Sansa statement did not refer to Nasa or Artemis by name.) The Matjesfontein facility would be completed in 2025.

(Sansa also did not mention that the current ISS decommissioning date was late 2030, with de-orbiting planned for early 2031.)