Overview:
The liftoff of the Cygnus spacecraft, which was set for 12pm, has now been rescheduled to Monday.
Uganda’s planned satellite launch on Sunday, November 6, 2022 was called off after a fire alarm at the mission operations control centre in Dulles, Virginia.
The liftoff of the Cygnus spacecraft, which was set for 12pm, has now been rescheduled to Monday.
NASA on Sunday said: “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 5:27am ET (10:27 UTC). We’ll go live at 5am.”
The Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, Dr Monica Musenero, in an interview confirmed the development.
“NASA has called off the launch due to a fire alarm, and the satellite launch will take place tomorrow,” she said.
In an earlier statement, Dr Musenero said the satellite will be deployed into low earth orbit in December 2022. She said Uganda is also setting up an Earth Station at Mpoma, Mukono for command, control, and management of the satellite here in Uganda.
According to the statement in April 2020, Uganda sent three engineers: Edgar Mujuni, Derick Tebusweke, and Bonny Omara, to obtain training in satellite design, build, test, launch, and operation as part of the BIRDS-5 project, led by Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.
On May 10, 2022, the satellite built by Ugandan engineers, named PearlAfricaSat-1, was handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for final testing.
“The satellite successfully completed all tests and was subsequently handed over to the United States of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for launch and deployment,” the minister said.
Dr Musenero said PearlAfricaSat-1 has a multispectral camera payload which will provide research and observation high-resolution image data to support weather forecasting; land, water, and mineral mapping; agriculture monitoring; infrastructure planning; border security, and disaster prevention.
“With our own data, analysis and prediction of weather, water quality, soil fertility, landslides, and drought will be more efficient. The satellite will also play a vital role in planning, resource management, and environmental impact assessment in our oil and gas industry,” she said.