India, Jan. 28 -- The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), an international radio telescope project, is helping boost capacity for space science across Africa. South Africa, the host of the mid-frequency radio telescope, is benefitting immensely.

The observatory project is helping build capacity and interest in space science, one of the least common branches of the sciences in Africa. The continent produces the least percentage of the world's scientific knowledge at about 2 per cent.

Jointly hosted by the governments of South Africa under the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and Australia, and designed to be the largest project of its kind in the world, the scientific endeavour has seen the number of people specia...