Africa

Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, announced on 9 May 2018 that it, in conjunction with Tillman Digital Cities and CivicConnect, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Smart Africa secretariat to accelerate the development and implementation of public-private partnerships (PPP) with the Smart Africa Alliance.

Japan is making further inroads to Africa, helping another African country, Rwanda, join the space club. The University of Tokyo has signed an agreement with Rwanda to help it build a small satellite and train its future engineers. The agreement, signed on 9 May 2018 in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the Transform Africa summit, is between the Smart Africa Initiative and Rwanda, and the University of Tokyo.

The world's largest satellite communications provider, Intelsat, will partner with Israel's Gilat in a pilot program to provide a communications infrastructure for Uganda's rural populations as part of the effort to enhance that country's economic and social development.

A senior executive from Nigeria’s NigComSat has confirmed to the Nigerian press that the satellite communications company is to acquire two additional satellites from the China Great Wall Industry Corporation. This confirmation follows an agreement between NigComSat and Chinese development banks to provide Nigeria with U.S.$500 million in aid to acquire and launch the satellites over the next 36 months.

Nigeria's NigComSat and Turkey's Turksat have agreed to jointly carve out a share of the satellite communications market in Africa, where they will collaborate to ensure the deployment of satellite solutions.

Effective Space is poised to launch two spacecraft in 2020 that promise to transform our capabilities in space through in-orbit servicing. These SPACE DRONE™ spacecraft can extend the life of satellites that are reaching the end of their operational term, giving them a new lease of life, and enabling operators to continue bringing in revenues from their space assets long after they would originally have been decommissioned. This is true disruptive technology that will ultimately lead to many other avenues in the in-orbit servicing sector, and can help to tackle the critical challenges that the satellite industry faces such as how we deal with space debris. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, Spacewatch.Global, spoke to Daniel Campbell, UK Managing Director of Effective Space to get the lowdown on a company that is set to deliver unprecedented services to the space community.

The first ever Angolan satellite to be launched is no longer operational. Confirmation of the news came via a press conference in Luanda with the Angolan Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Jose Carvalho da Rocha.

A new satellite Earth observation company which promises to deliver real-time video of the Earth ‘enhanced by machine intelligence’ has received the backing of Bill Gates, OneWeb’s Greg Wyler, Airbus and Japan’s Softbank.

The small satellite revolution is in full swing. It is on the menu at every conference. It is on our newsfeeds. It is the talk of the industry. The last couple of years have heralded a true breakthrough for the small satellite as news has poured in of new constellations in development and emerging operators looking to use small satellites to drive innovation and cater for emerging applications. With manufacturing prices tumbling and increasingly sophisticated technology and propulsion systems becoming reality for the smallsat, this is a phenomenon that is surely set for longevity. However, there is one rather large problem looming and that is the shortage of rides into space. Yes, you have a satellite but how do you find a vehicle to get it where it needs to go?

South Africa's Minister for Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, was joined by France's ambassador to South Africa, Christophe Farnaud, at a ceremony held on 17 April 2018 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) for the send-off the ZACUBE-2 Cubesat to India from where it will be launched later in 2018.