Economic boom in Africa increases continent’s ambitions in Space race

A view of Auckland, New Zealand from Nigeria’s satellite – the NigeriaSat-X

Economic Boom Fuels Ghana’s, Nigeria’s, Kenya’s —and Continent’s—dream of building telescopes and satellites to study Outer Space

As Africa continues to experience economic growth and as space exploration becomes less expensive, African countries are increasing becoming more ambitious about entering the space race.

At present, the west African country of Nigeria has three satellites in space; earlier this year, Ghana launched its space science and technology center in a bid to harness the potentials of science and technology for accelerated socio- economic development. In east Africa, Kenya and Uganda are also stepping into space, using shoestring budgets to create high-tech jobs, get satellite data on their landscapes and inspire citizens to study science.

(More: Nigeria launches third satellite this year)

In Uganda, the country’s African Space Research Program is working independently, funded by wealthy citizens. The US$45 million program wants to launch a camera-equipped satellite next year.

Additionally, South Africa, alongside Australia and New Zealand, has the bid to host the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. 70 percent of the project will be based in South Africa. The SKA project is a multi billion dollar project that will attempt to look at the early days when the universe was formed. It will attempt to verify the big bang theory, and also test Albert Einstein’s Theory of relativity.

The benefits of the project will impact South Africa, Kenya (University of Nairobi), Mauritius, Uganda and other African countries, as they will be contracted to consult and build parts of the radio telescope.

Parts of this article have been sourced from: allAfrica; The Wall Street Journal