Tag Archives: Africa

The U.S. military's Africa Command (USAFRICOM) has contracted with SES-owned O3B to provide commercial satellite communications to better support its widespread operations across the African continent

Patrick Nyirishema, the Director-General of the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), told a workshop on space regulations in Kigali – the capital city of Rwanda – that the small African country is looking at developing its own small communications satellite, and is also mulling the possibility of proposing a regional satellite with six other East African countries, according to a report by Africanews.space.

Kenya's first indigenously-built satellite was launched by a SpaceX Falcon-9 space launch vehicle to the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 April 2018 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite, called First Kenya University Nano Satellite-Precursor Flight (1KUNS-PF) was built by a team from the University of Nairobi, with technical assistance from staff from the University of Rome, and co-funded by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) as part of the KiboCUBE programme.

The Nigeria Communications Ltd. (NigComSat) company, the operator of the NIGCOMSAT-1R communications satellite, is set to receive U.S.$550 million equity investment from the satellite's manufacturer, China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the Nigerian Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu told Nigerian newspaper Punch on 2

Following the SpaceWatch.Global report that Israel’s Spacecom is looking to purchase a new satellite to be called AMOS-8, we can now report that Spacecom has selected U.S. satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral (SSL), a subsidiary of Maxar Technologies, to build the new satellite, instead of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) as many expected.

Israeli fleet operator Spacecom is very close to purchasing a new satellite, named AMOS-8. This forthcoming purchase is a sign of a turnaround for Spacecom, as well as a bet on the troubled company’s future. Back-to-back spacecraft losses in 2015 and 2016 turned Spacecom from an expanding business into a struggling concern. Preceding the destruction of AMOS-6, Spacecom’s Russian-built AMOS-5 satellite ceased working in orbit due to a power system failure in 2015, just four years after its launch.

Struggling NigComSat is looking to Türksat to develop its satellite communications market in Africa. The Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd, NigComSat, has been talking with Turkish satellite operator, Türksat A.S., about the possibility of expanding their market across various industries to deepen services at more affordable rates.

Thaicom Public Company Limited, one of Asia’s leading satellite and digital platform operators, announced that it has signed a multiyear contract with CANAL+ Overseas Myanmar, a CANAL+ subsidiary in charge of broadcasting internatio

The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is on the verge of mounting a large expansion of its cooperative efforts with other African countries, and potentially with the European Space Agency (ESA) as well, according to the SANSA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Val Munsami in an interview with Engineering News …

How should India approach Chinese efforts to develop antisatellite (ASAT) weapons and its ambition to establish space superiority? In a talk given to the Observer Research Foundation’s Space Security conference in New Delhi on 16 February, 2018, ThorGroup’s Dr. John B. Sheldon offers a few suggestions. For those who have just …