Askat and Meerkat, sitting in a tree, k i s s i n g, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby, in a baby carriage.
In an apparent U turn, which all the professionals involved describe as a success (of course) South Africa and Australia are to share the first phase of the SKA.
To an outside observer, that knows nothing about the politics, promises and emotion of the SKA it looks like the 20 odd countries involved are rather not placing their eggs in one basket as South Africa is not the most stable country in the world.
AU (ASKAT) has 36 antennas (array of) that will be complete in 2013 (next year) built at a cost of $100 million.
ZA (MeerKAT) has 64 antennas (array of) that will be completed in 2016 (in four years) built at around the same price as ASKAT.
The income from a completed SKA (3000 antennas, including tile and other receivers) is expected to generate around 5000 million dollars for it’s hosts over a twenty year period. A great win for the hon Minister Pandor.