Africa

OneWeb has announced a distribution partnership agreement with Q-KON Africa, a specialist technology company that supplies solutions based on satellite, wireless, and VoIP technologies to offer broadband connectivity services in African countries. Q-KON Africa connects “off-grid” locations through their satellite broadband service, Twoobii, to core networks throughout Africa reliably and effectively.

The French National Space Agency CNES (Centre National d'Etude Spatiales), in collaboration with the European Space Agency and Aerospace Valley, organized the ActInSpace hackathon from 18 to 19 November 2022. The international spatial hackathon is dedicated to imagining products and services of tomorrow thanks to space applications, and it simultaneously held in 34 countries and 65 cities on five continents with 1,700 global participants.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) have renewed their partnership in lunar exploration with the groundbreaking of a new communications facility that will help the Artemis missions return humans to the Moon. The ceremony came after the signing of a Letter of Intent between NASA and the South African Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) to formalize the space exploration partnership.

Uganda and Zimbabwe have launched their respective first satellites, on November 7 2022, onto the International Space Station for subsequent deployment into orbit at a later date. The satellites, PearlAfricaSat-1 and ZimSat-1, were launched at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Northrop Grumman (NG-18 Cygnus) commercial cargo resupply services to the ISS).

The Chairman of the Space Committee of the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate, Dr. Muhandes Ahmed Faraj, has disclosed Egypt's plans to launch two new satellites, one of which will assist in climate change monitoring in Africa. Faraj made the disclosure during the Egyptian Space Committee of the Syndicate of Engineers' recently concluded conference on Egypt's efforts to develop its space capabilities

Continuing its cooperation with African countries, China has taken steps to strengthen its relations with Namibia in the space industry. China recently organized a "Talk with Taikonauts" session with eight African countries; Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Algeria, and Senegal

Zimbabwe and Uganda are preparing to launch their respective first satellites into space on 6 November 2022. The satellites, ZimSat-1, and PearlAfricaSat-1 are launching into space as part of the BIRDS-5 constellation which also includes a 2U CubeSat from Japan

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia’s Proton-M launch vehicle delivered the Republic of Angola’s Angosat-2 telecommunications satellite into its designated orbit, Roscosmos said. Angosat-2 was built by the Roscosmos enterprise to replace Angosat-1 launched from Baikonur spaceport in 2017.

The Rockefeller Foundation launched a new US $5.5 million collaboration with e-GUIDE (Electricity Growth and Use In Developing Economies Initiative) and public benefit technology startup Atlas AI, to accelerate economic development and promote climate resilient infrastructure investment across sub-Saharan Africa, the Foundation said. 

Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, appointed Professor Sherif Mohamed Sedky as the new executive head of the Egyptian Space Agency, Space in Africa reported. Professor Sedky will serve as executive head for one year. Professor Sedky is replacing Dr Mohamed Al-Qousi, who has been in the position since 2019.