Uganda to launch another satellite into space

Uganda is working on launching another satellite into the space, Dr. Monica Musenero, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation has said.

“This one will give us more capacity for communication and things like telephones and television. We are moving steadily and building the capacity needed, “ Dr.Musenero said on Wednesday during the launch of this year’s National Science Week in Kampala.

The satellite developed by Ugandan engineers Edgar Mujuni, Bonny Omara, and Derrick Tebusweke is part of the BIRDS program, a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-space faring countries supported by Japan.

The development followed Uganda’s agreement with Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan which involved upskilling the three graduate engineers to design, build, test, and launch Uganda’s first satellite.

The satellite was loaded with more than 8,200 pounds of research, crew supplies, and hardware and was meant to provide research and observation data in six primary areas including weather forecast; land, water and mineral mapping; agriculture monitoring; infrastructure planning; border security, and disaster prevention.

Speaking on Wednesday, Cosmas Mwikirize, the superintendent at the industrial value chains development at the Science, Technology and Innovation said since the PearlAfricaSat-1 was just the beginning for the country, not so much is expected out of the country’s first satellite.

“The first satellite we launched had limited capacity because it our first shot into space but we have now started the work towards developing our second satellite built by our own people,” Mwikiriza said.

“The first satellite is in the space but has limited capability and also had a limited lifespan. It was never expected to lead us to a lot of capacity as a nation. It was a student developed satellite with limited capacity but will help us showcase that we can do it.”

He was however quick to note that the country is currently on the right track to development the necessary expertise for bigger and improved satellites.

“The space program is far much bigger than assets(satellites) but we have taken quite big strides as a country. When we started out in 2020, we absolutely had no capacity on any front and we sent out three engineers to Japan to develop our first satellite.”

He said as part of the program to develop the space program, Uganda has development Mpoma satellite into an ultra-modern earth station that is able to help the country control not only its satellites but also get data from other countries with which the country has collaboration.

Mwikirize said as part of the program, Uganda has trained a number of engineers abroad in Japan, Egypt and China among others.

“Gradually we are growing the requisite human capital that is going to help us develop the assets but also products. The second satellite is being developed in Uganda in collaboration with our partners.”