{"id":31190,"date":"2026-04-09T10:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31190"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:40:18","slug":"sa-national-space-agency-continue-to-play-key-role-nasas-artemis-ii-mission","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-national-space-agency-continue-to-play-key-role-nasas-artemis-ii-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"SA National Space Agency continue to play key role NASA&#8217;s Artemis II mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is playing a key support role in National Aeronautics and Space Administration&#8217;s (NASA) Artemis II mission, which sent astronauts on a fly\u2011by around the Moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">From its Hartebeesthoek facility in Gauteng Province, SANSA provides critical spacecraft tracking and telemetry support for the Orion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SANSA operates the largest ground station in the Southern Hemisphere at Hartbeeshoek.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">It was originally built by NASA in 1963 and handed over to SA in 1976.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Its work supports the Artemis program, including monitoring the Orion spacecraft in deep space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Officials say missions like Artemis II would be far more difficult without SANSA&#8217;s support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s role in space exploration dates back to the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Today, through SANSA, the country continues to support Artemis, NASA&#8217;s programme to return humans on a fly by around Moon for the first time since 1972.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31191,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-31190","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Artemis II mission","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31192,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31190\/revisions\/31192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}