Overview:
Dr Doreen Agaba, the technical lead of the Department of Aeronautics and Space Science, at the Science Technology and Innovation Secretariat, said that after reaching the space station, the satellite will be deployed to the low earth orbit by a robot for it to start sending required images.
Uganda’s satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1, has been launched into the International Space Station.
The satellite was launched into space at 1:27 pm EAT on Monday, 07 November 2022 at NASA Virginia Air and Space Centre in US.
The satellite will subsequently be deployed into low earth orbit in December 2022.
Dr Monica Musenero, the science and technology minister, who watched the event from Kololo in Kampala, described the move as milestone.
“The future of science and technology in Uganda is great. This achievement is a cloud breaker and a confidence builder. For Uganda, the sky is not even the limit,” she said.
In a Sunday statement, Dr Musenero said Uganda is also setting up an Earth Station at Mpoma, Mukono, for command, control, and management of the satellite here in Uganda, by Ugandans.
“This satellite will support weather forecasting, land, water, and mineral mapping, agriculture monitoring, infrastructure planning, border security, and disaster prevention,” she said.
The Cygnus CRS18 Spacecraft Carrier to the International Space Station propulsion was called off yesterday a few minutes after the scheduled time into the launch following a fire alarm in the control centre building.
NASA, the American space agency, confirmed the postponement in a tweet yesterday: “Today’s planned Commercial Resupply Services (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 [1:27 pm EAT].”
The satellite, which was developed by three Ugandan Engineers, is being launched by NASA because Uganda doesn’t have the capacity to do it, according to the Minister.
Dr Doreen Agaba, the technical lead of the Department of Aeronautics and Space Science, at the Science Technology and Innovation Secretariat, said that after reaching the space station, the satellite will be deployed to the low earth orbit by a robot for it to start sending required images.
She said PearlAfricaSat-1 has a multispectral camera payload which will be used in research and observation of high-resolution image data to support weather forecasting; land, water and mineral mapping and agriculture monitoring.