Ethiopia to launch first weather satellite in Sept 2019

Ethiopia has announced that it will launch its first satellite into space in September 2019. The Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) officials said that the East African country’s first satellite will be utilized to collect data on changes in climate and weather-related phenomena.

The first satellite of Ethiopia will get a gigantic amount of $6 million contribution from China to the total $8 million cost in the production. Approximately 60 students are helping to build the satellite at the Ethiopian space institute in Addis Ababa, as well as at the Entoto Observatory and Research Center, which is based at the summit of Mount Entoto.

According to Dr. Solomon Belay Tessema, Director General of ESSTI, the satellite will be launched from China but the control and command station would be based in Ethiopia. While the majority of the preliminary and critical design was accomplished by a group of Ethiopian engineers, China will now assist in providing training for the project.

“We use home-based strategy, which involves local engineers and students at MA and PhD-level to be part of the science and applications of the technology and knowledge transfer,” Tessema opined.

Ethiopia now joins the other African nations that have already launched satellites into space. Kenya recently launched its first satellite into orbit in May 2018. Angola also launched its first satellite but it turned out redundant in April 2018. Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco also have respective satellites orbiting the Earth.