october-2018

46 / TREND / Space
TREND / 47
Liftoff
Africa’s SPACE PROGRAMME is underway.
Communications, disaster management and
agriculture have entered the technetronic age with
the help of orbital satellites.
text Andrea Dijkstra
OVERLOOKING THE ETHIOPIAN capital is Mount
Entoto, the so-called “lung of Addis Ababa”. Rising 3,200 m
above sea level, the highest peak of the Entoto Mountains got
its name because of the dense collection of eucalyptus trees that
cover it. This forest was once a key source of building materials
for Addis Ababa. Among these trees now sit two futuristic metal
domes, standing out against the blue sky and juxtaposing the
surrounding fields, which are still ploughed by farmers using
oxen. Both buildings house a computer-controlled optical
telescope that weighs six tonnes and costs about US$1.5 million.
They are part of the US$4 million Entoto Observatory and
Space Science Research Center, which is the first space observatory
in East Africa, and, essentially, the first building block
of the country’s space programme. Ethiopia will enter the next
phase when it launches its own satellite from a facility in China
within four years.
Ethiopia is one of a rising number of countries on the
African continent that have created national space agencies.
Eight of them already have operating satellites: Algeria, Angola,
Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
Although critics think it’s an odd use of scarce resources on a
continent where over 42 percent of the population still lives
below the poverty line, experts in the industry claim that space
technology is crucial for the development of Africa. “Space
science technology is often considered a luxury for developed
countries only, but it’s actually a basic and vital need for development,”
says Dr Solomon Belay Tessema, Director General
of the Entoto Observatory and Space Science Research Center.
He adds that space technology develops sectors including
energy, mining, data processing, and agriculture.
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Africa’s space race
While the US and the Soviet Union
strived to become the first nation
to put a human into space in the
previous century, a new “space race”
has recently broken out in Africa. The
continent now has its first “Afronaut”.
Mark Shuttleworth, from South Africa,
became the first African to travel to
space when he joined the Russian
Soyuz TM-34 mission – in 2002 – as
the second self-funded space tourist,
paying approximately US$20 million,
and spending eight days at the
International Space Station. However,
the race for the first black “Afronaut”
is still in full swing. South African
Mandla Maseko (29), a part-time DJ
who grew up in a township, defeated
a million other fellow applicants
of the Axe Apollo Space Academy
competition in 2013, which gave
him a ticket to join one of the
Lynx Mark II flights. Although he
has already done several training
assignments, no firm plans been
made public yet.
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