Africa

Airbus Defense and Space has announced an agreement for Angeo-1, the first very high-performance Angolan Earth observation satellite, which it will develop in France. Furthermore, the agreement will strengthen the collaboration between the two countries. As part of the partnership, Airbus will offer a comprehensive training program for Angolan engineers to build domestic competencies through targeted knowledge transfer.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and Avio have selected a consortium of the University of Nairobi (UoN), the University of Arizona (UA), and Space Trust as the first awardee of the ‘Accessing space with Vega C’ program. As a result, the team will launch a CubeSat, the NaSPUoN-0GPM2030, at no cost on board the Vega C rocket.

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Egyptian Government have, via a signed agreement, formally inaugurated and declared the African Space Agency (AfSA) open and operational on January 25 2023. The agreement establishes the general framework regulating the relationship between the parties, which will serve as a platform for space research and innovation on the continent.

During the 14th session on deepening space cooperation between Europe, Africa, and Latin America, Tomasz Husak disclosed some of the plans the European Commission had for Africa and Latin America

The Republic of Djibouti has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group Limited and Touchroad International Holdings Group to develop an international commercial spaceport in its northern Obock Region of Djibouti. 

Microsoft Corp. and Viasat have signed a new partnership to help deliver internet access to 10 million people globally, including 5 million across Africa. Viasat is the first satellite partner to work with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative. As a result, they will deepen Airband’s work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, and prioritize expanding the program to Egypt, Senegal, and Angola to deliver much-needed internet connection, often for the first time.

Rwanda and Nigeria have signed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Artemis Accords, becoming the first African nations to join the accords. Nigeria's Minister of Communication, Professor Ali Isa Pantami, and Rwanda's Space Agency CEO, Col Francis Ngabo, signed the agreement on behalf of their countries. The signatures took place under the sidelines of the US-Africa Space Forum on the sideline of the US-Africa Leaders' Summit in Washington DC, United States

The UAE-built Rashid Rover, the first Emirati mission to the surface of the Moon, lifted off on board a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, US, at 11.38 am UAE time on Monday, December 11, 2022. 

Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has helped launch the construction of the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO)’s SKA-Low telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Country in Mid West Western Australia. 

Applications are open for the 2023 Edition of the International Space Weather Camp (ISWC). The International Space Weather Camp provides an incredible opportunity for students from South Africa, the USA, and Germany to learn about space weather, a relatively new and exciting field involving the study of the Sun and its influence on space and the Earth’s upper atmosphere as well as the impacts of solar events on space and ground-based technological systems that modern society relies on daily.