Eight Schools Named for Rooibos's Trip to Space
The South African Rooibos Council has named the eight schools joining its space-seed program, seven of them growing the rooibos seeds returning from the International Space Station, and opened a nationwide contest for the mission's patch.
The South African Rooibos Council has named the eight schools joining its space-seed program, widening a plan that started with five.
The Ministry reported in July that SARC, working with the logistics firm MaxIQ Space, would send rooibos seeds into orbit this October, to be compared afterward against a control batch that never left the ground. At the time, the participating students were only described in general terms, as part of a schools science program. SARC has now put names to that program, according to Food For Mzansi: seven schools in the Cederberg, the valley that grows the world's rooibos, will do the actual growing, Môrester Akademie in Vanrhynsdorp, Sederberg Primary School and Clanwilliam Sekondêr in Clanwilliam, Cederberg Academy in Citrusdal, Graafwater Primer in Graafwater, PW De Bruin Primary School in Lambert's Bay, and Hoërskool Piketberg. An eighth, Parklands College in Cape Town, joins as a strategic partner rather than a grower, contributing its established space-science programme and its experience designing experiments for space missions.
SARC director Dawie de Villiers told Food For Mzansi that the council "decided to broaden our scope and include every single eligible school" that applied, rather than the five schools originally planned. The Western Cape government's own education portal carried an account of the project in July, independently naming three of the same schools; that piece credits the initiative's leadership to SARC, working in partnership with MaxIQ Space and with SANSA's support.
SARC and MaxIQ have also opened a national competition, open to any South African student, to design the official mission patch during July and August, regardless of whether their own school made the shortlist. It is a wider invitation than the seed experiment itself, which stays inside the seven growing schools.
When the seeds come home, expected in December or the new year, the seven Cederberg schools will plant them beside a control group and track germination and growth, the same design the Ministry described in July. The Afrikaans outlet Maroela Media has also carried the story, in the language most of the Cederberg growing region actually speaks.
Sources: Food For Mzansi, "Rooibos project turns classrooms into space labs" (1 August 2026); Western Cape Government, "Learners join rooibos space research project" (23 July 2026); Maroela Media, "SA se rooibos nou op pad na die ruimte" | Afrikaans.