“Remote-sensing satellites have changed the world as we know it – and how we know it.” After the launch of the Landsat program in the early ‘70’s, agricultural policymakers and planners soon realised that here was a tool that would revolutionize data-gathering.

Nowadays EARTH OBSERVATION is the sector probably most important in our everyday living, yet its benefits are relatively unknown to the public, who are far more aware of space in communications – TV, cellphones, IT and the Internet, ‘handheld devices’ and pocket GPS navigation.

Today, South African Science chalked up yet another astronomical achievement with the signing of an agreement for the country to host the International Astronomical Union’s Office for Astronomy Development.