Ethiopia is set to launch its second satellite into space

Ethiopia is finishing plans to launch its second satellite into orbit next month, just eight months after the launch of its ETRSS-1 Satellite last December.

The country’s space ambitions, backed by China’s funds and its satellite launch sites, has seen Ethiopian engineers design the satellites in an initiative co-funded by both countries. The ET-SMART-RSS earth observation nano satellite is expected to take off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, in Wenchang, Hainan province.

“We will benefit from this satellite’s data collecting abilities for up to a year,” says Dr. Yeshurun Alemayu, of Ethiopia’s Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) via the institution’s website.

Ethiopia’s ETRSS-1 satellite, which is manned by a team of engineers at the Entoto Observatory and Research Center on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, analyzes weather patterns to extract data and enhance the country’s preparedness in the case of drought. The country’s collaboration on space projects with China was signed into agreement in 2016, by Ethiopia’s then minister of Science and Technology, the current prime minister Abiy Ahmed. READ MORE