Kenya launched on Saturday April 15 its first operational Earth observation satellite aboard a rocket SpaceX from the United States, Elon Musk’s company. Both the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) and the private company shared the broadcast.
The satellite, developed by nine engineers from the African country, collect agricultural and environmental data, including on floods, droughts and wildfireswhich the authorities plan to use for disaster management and to combat food insecurity.
According to the report of Reutersthe Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Taifa-1 satellite lifted off at about 0648 GMT without incident from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, after three postponements due to bad weather.
Alloyce Were, an aeronautical engineer and Deputy Director of Navigation and Positioning at the government-run Kenya Space Agency, stated before the launch: “We have the challenges that climate change has brought, that the satellite, by virtue of being able to capture images (it will be able to help monitor)”.
“We can monitor changes in forests, we can monitor changes in urbanization”, he stressed.
A low cost satellite
The satellite was assembled with the help of the Bulgarian aerospace company Endurosat a a cost of 50 million Kenyan shillings ($372,000) over two yearsthe space agency said. To get an idea, $1 is equivalent to 134.4500 Kenyan shillings.
The KSA claims that its satellite will operate for five years and then decay for 20 years, entering the atmosphere and turning off.
The launch rocket had 50 payloads from other countries, including Turkey, under SpaceX’s ride-sharing program.
