South Africa to Launch Joint Astronaut Training Program with Russia, Targets 2027 Manned Mission

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. South Africa will launch its astronaut training program jointly with Russia, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Humbulani Mudau told Russia's Izvestia daily. He told the newspaper that the training program is currently being drafted. The selection of candidates will begin as soon as the plan is complete, he added. In Mudau's words, South Africa plans a manned space mission in 2027. Russia's state-run space corporation Roscosmos confirmed its readiness to join the training process. "We are ready to cooperate with our South African partners in selecting and training would-be astronauts within the agreed timeframes and on mutually beneficial terms," Izvestia quoted a Roscosmos official as saying. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said during the Russian Space Forum in early April that Russia was preparing to sign deals with a number of post-Soviet, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries to train their cosmonauts and create telecommunication and remote sensing satellites.