The Ethiopian government announced in January that it will launch a Chinese-built civilian satellite within the next five years to reduce its reliance on foreign telecoms, reports the Economist
The satellite is designed to Ethiopian specifications and will be used to monitor crops, the weather among other things.
The Ethiopian government hopes that mapping the country will help resolve land disputes which will boost agriculture and city planning, and that by investing in space science the country will speed up it industrialization.
Ethiopia will be joining a few African nations that have made the step already such as Nigeria which praises its satellites in its fight against terrorism, South Africa and Egypt. Kenya, Angola and Ghana are also on the path to launching their satellites as well.
According to the Economist, Gabon does not see the urgency of launching its own satellite when with the help of a satellite receiving station; it can manage its vast forests. Although the buying High-resolution, tailored imagery from the constellations of satellites floating above Africa today is still costly, but images used for most development purposes, such as monitoring crop yields, is now cheap or even free. And many functions of satellites, such as resource mapping, are increasingly being replaced by drones.
Africa is entering the space race at a time when the cost of satellite technology is falling fast.
