Eight brilliant South African learners are officially taking their seats at the global table! After impressing at the South African Space Design Competition finals, they will now head to NASA for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work alongside engineers and students from across the world in solving real aerospace challenges.
South Africa (16 April 2026) – It’s an exciting time for South African youth in STEM! After a challenging final round at the South African Space Design Competition (ZASDC) in March 2026 at the University of Cape Town, a select group of talented learners will now represent Team SA at the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC), held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre at the end of July.
The free competition welcomed learners, regardless of their background or previous experience, to offer a direct pathway to the international aerospace event taking place in Florida.
More than 100 students from nine schools joined the event at UCT, where they collaborated to design a city on the Moon, ‘Alaskol’. They elected leaders, divided into departments, and spent 24 hours responding to a professional design brief. They then stood up and defended their designs in front of a panel of judges from industry and academia.
From the 109 hopefuls, only eight were chosen to represent Team South Africa on the global stage. They are:
- Alaya Kaplen – Cannons Creek
- Benjamin Honigwachs – Bishops
- Dean Weich – Bishops
- Emmanuella Soibi
- Ethan Schoombee – Fairmont High
- Isabella Ankiah – Parklands College
- Joseph Allderman – Westerford High
- Zayaan Abdurahman – Mondale High School
Reserves:
- Abigail Denton – Livingstone High
- Aden van Rhys – Parklands College
- Marley Kidha – Westerford High
- Mia Swart – Westerford High
- Qaylah Omar – Cannons Creek
“These students were selected on the basis of technical knowledge, leadership, communication under pressure, creative thinking, and the ability to lift a team around them. They are exactly who we hoped to find,” shared Jagger Cooper-Doubell, Founder of ZASDC tells us.
ZASDC judge, UCT Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr Wei Hua Ho, also expressed his pride in the learners’ work ethic and performance:
“The students put together very good proposals given the short timeframe to work with strangers. We need more events where school learners engage with tertiary institutions, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I hope this is the first of many.”
One of the participating schools, Parklands College, reached out to Good Things Guy, commending its talented learners who competed and made the cut:
“At Parklands, we encourage our learners to discover their purpose by solving real-world challenges. This is at the very heart of the Parklands College’s STAR programme, where we aim to inspire our learners to find their purpose in the exciting future of Space and Earth. They entered, they competed, they led, and two of them have now been recognised among the best young space thinkers in the country. We are immensely proud of Isabella Ankiah, Aden van Rhys, and the entire Ares Industrial team.”
What Team SA Can Expect at ISSDC 2026
The ISSDC is the world’s premier aerospace education competition for secondary school students. Each year, approximately 270 students from over 20 countries gather to design futuristic space settlements in teams, simulating the work of real aerospace companies responding to a contract from a fictional space agency.
Team SA will be placed into a fictional aerospace company, totalling up to 64 people, composed of teams from countries around the world. These teams of 8-12 high schoolers have all been competitively selected from thousands of participants worldwide, forming a diverse company of students that will work together over five days to elect a leadership team, respond to a Request For Proposal for a space settlement and then present their design to a panel of five judges including astronauts, NASA engineers and other professionals from STEM industries.
The team will also get to visit the Kennedy Space Centre visitor complex for a tour of its museum, activities and facilities.
This is certainly a massive win for our learners. We can’t wait to see these young aerospace enthusiasts fly the SA flag high!
The team’s travel costs are currently being fundraised through a crowdfunding campaign and in partnership with a global IT supply chain company.
Sources: Jagger Cooper-Doubell | Parklands College
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