Australia Keywords:, South Africa, new generation radio telescope,SKA A fierce competition has developed between Australia and New Zealand, on the one hand, and a group of southern African countries led by South Africa, on the other, for the right to become a place for the implementation of a unique scientific project - the construction of a giant radio telescope, which should consist of an array of antennas of various types installed on different extensive sites. Their total area is one million square meters, which is equal to almost 200 football fields. It should repeatedly surpass all existing world analogues in both sensitivity and resolution. It is assumed that such a super telescope will help scientists answer many fundamental questions of astronomy and astrophysics. INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION PROJECT OF THE CENTURY The first ideas for creating a giant radio telescope to explore the universe originated in 1990. Three years later, the International Union of Radiosciences created a special group that developed the project "Very Large radio Telescope", which was then called Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and in translation into Russian - "Grid area of a square kilometer". Step by step, events consistently developed like this. In 2000, an International Coordination Committee was formed in Amsterdam. Dozens of research institutes from different countries were involved in the project to one degree or another. The number of scientists and engineers actively involved in it grew every year. As for Russia's participation in the project, it is an observer - over the past few years, the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory has been contributing to some scientific issues. In April 2011, in Rome, nine countries-Australia, Great Britain, China, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, New Zealand and South Africa-signed a document on joint commitments to finance the project. Representatives of these countries will take part in the design, construction and management of the complex. An ... Read more