International observatory has awarded R1bn-plus in contracts in South Africa

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory (SKAO) has so far awarded contracts worth about R1.2-billion to South African companies and institutions, for work on the SKA-Mid radio telescope array, being created in the Northern Cape province’s Karoo region. This was pointed out by SKA-Mid construction director Tracy Cheetham at a media briefing at the SKAO South Africa offices in Cape Town, on Monday. The SKA will, when completed, be the biggest radio telescope ever built, composed of two arrays, one, in South Africa, covering the middle of the radio frequency spectrum, and the other, in Australia, covering the low end of the radio spectrum. The head office of the SKAO is in the UK. She described the SKAO as “one observatory, with two radio telescopes, operating at three sites”.