Uganda’s satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1, has been launched into the International Space Station this afternoon.
Due to a fire alarm at the operations control center, the launch that was scheduled for Sunday was postponed.
“Today’s planned CRS18 launch has been scrubbed due to a fire alarm at the mission operations control center in Dulles, Virginia. Liftoff of the Cygnus spacecraft is now set for Nov. 7 at 5:27 am ET (10:27 UTC). We’ll go live at 5 am,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a statement and a tweet.
The launch, however, was successful this afternoon.
To begin with, a satellite is an object that is sent (launched) into space and has a range of sizes and functions.
Uganda now has a satellite, making it the 12th country in Africa to have one. The other countries are Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morrocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Sudan.
About PearlAfricaSat-1
PearlAfricaSat-1, is the latest mission from the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project.
The project was first introduced in 2019 and the initial Ugandan government approval came in 2021. The project is being implemented in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.
The PearlAfricaSat-1 is a 1U (10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm) Cube satellite that was designed and developed by three Ugandan engineers (Edgar Mujuni, Derick Tebusweke, and Bonny Omara) and handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on May 10 2022.
In order to be transported to the International Space Station, where it would then be launched into lower earth orbit before the end of 2022, JAXA turned it over to NASA on May 18 of this year.
The satellite will subsequently be deployed into low earth orbit in December 2022.
Uganda is also setting up an Earth Station at Mpoma, Mukono, for command, control, and management of our satellite here in Uganda, by Ugandans.
Should Ugandans be excited?
The PearlAfricaSat-1 was specifically designed to provide research and observation data that will provide solutions in the weather forecast, land, water bodies and mineral mapping, agriculture monitoring, disaster prevention, Infrastructure Planning, and Border Security.
However, due to poor planning, only a small number of African nations can demonstrate specific advantages they have derived from their satellites.