meerkat

SKA South Africa has awarded a R630-million contract for the design, manufacture and installation of 64 antennas for the MeerKAT, a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array telescope, to a South African-US consortium, with 75% of the contract value to be spent locally.

Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor has encouraged those learners who won the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)-MeerKat Schools Competition to study maths and science, saying South Africa needs more people with these skills.

Now that the long wait is over and the co-hosts of the Square Kilometre Array have been announced, South Africa and Australia can get on with the business of building the world’s biggest scientific instrument.
• Great astronomy, with or without SKA

Johannesburg, 25 May 2012. Brand South Africa would like to congratulate the Department of Science and Technology; the SA SKA bid team, and Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor, on their success in hosting the Square Kilometre Array, in partnership with Australia.

After weeks of speculation, members of the Square Kilometre Array Organisation have announced that South Africa and Australia will jointly host the world’s largest radio telescope.
• Great astronomy, with or without SKA

After weeks of speculation, members of the Square Kilometre Array Organisation have announced that South Africa and Australia will jointly host the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

South Africa has become a member of a European institute that makes joint use of radio telescopes spread across the world to produce the clearest available images of some of the most distant and energetic objects in the universe.

A decision on the site of the Square Kilometre Array has been delayed to allow a scientific working group to explore ways of maximising investments already made by rival bidders South Africa and Australia-New Zealand - raising the possibility that the hosting of the world's biggest radio telescope could be shared.

Africa is ready to host the Square Kilometre Array – this is the emphatic message delivered by science and technology minister Naledi Pandor at a media briefing in Johannesburg.
• Great astronomy, with or without SKA

South Africa's KAT-7 telescope, a seven-dish array which is a precursor to the much larger MeerKAT telescope and a prototype for the Square Kilometre Array, has reached another milestone by producing the first atomic hydrogen spectral line images of a nearby galaxy.