{"id":882044,"date":"2026-10-29T16:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=882044"},"modified":"2026-10-29T16:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:40:28","slug":"iconic-item-only-found-in-south-africa-heading-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/882044\/iconic-item-only-found-in-south-africa-heading-to-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic item only found in South Africa heading to space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has sent roughly 17,000 rooibos seeds to the United States as part of a plan to send them to the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seeds are travelling to Voyager Technologies in Texas, where they will be prepared for space flight to the ISS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the seeds and the accompanying experiments will travel to outer space aboard the Cygnus NG-25 commercial resupply spacecraft, which is expected to launch between December 2026 and January 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will be contained in a nanolab, a small research module designed to allow experiments to be transported to and from space with minimal large equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, it was intended that the rooibos would head to the ISS in October; however, changes to spaceflight schedules prompted a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Rooibos Council (SARC) director, Dawie de Villiers, said the space mission is a unique opportunity to learn more about the South African staple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The scientific objective is to explore what will happen to the Rooibos seeds when they are exposed to conditions beyond Earth, opening up new opportunities to learn more about this uniquely South African plant,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the experiment, the seeds will be exposed to different levels of gravity and radiation found in space before returning home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seeds will spend between four and six weeks in space before returning to South Africa, where they will be planted alongside control samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growth of the rooibos seeds will then be tracked over 18 months and compared against control samples for differences in growth and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rooibos seed technician, Cyril Ngqwala, said the experiment was a rare opportunity to pair space science with knowledge of rooibos seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have prepared the seeds in different conditions so that, when they return, we can compare their performance with seeds that have remained on Earth,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s exciting to think that something as uniquely South African as Rooibos is now part of a space experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniquely South African<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rooibos is a plant endemic to South Africa, specifically the Cederberg region in the Western Cape, and is a valuable commodity for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, South Africa exported over 10,000 tonnes of rooibos to more than 50 international markets, with a third going to Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commodity has an export value of approximately R900 million, with its farm-gate value estimated at between R300 million and R420 million annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, the SARC noted that upstream activities associated with rooibos provide approximately 8,000 jobs through processing and packaging, among other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The export value of rooibos was recently noted by SARC secretary, Marthane Swart, who said there were significant economic opportunities for the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She highlighted recent trade developments, including the removal of tariffs on South African exports to China, as key opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChina is a very large market, and the potential for increasing your export volumes there is meaningful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also highlighted a need to protect Rooibos’ authenticity and reputation as a uniquely South African product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rooibos has two key protections in this regard: a Geographical Indication (GI) and a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gives rooibos a status similar to that of products such as champagne, where the name is legally tied to its place of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We were awarded the protected designation of origin by the European Union in late May 2021, and this was really something that was very surprising to the Rooibos Council \u2013 the weight that this registration carried internationally,\u201d Swart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The designation means that producers outside of the recognised growing area cannot market their tea as rooibos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plans are advancing to send rooibos seeds to space, marking the first time an indigenous South African plant will leave the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":882069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2115817442777657854","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2253564998797232","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17984495738902601","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[1510,25772,26987,26988],"class_list":["post-882044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-iss","tag-rooibos","tag-sarc","tag-voyage-technologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882044"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882071,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882044\/revisions\/882071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}