The country should have launched its first satellite in 2021 but it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Senegal will launch its first satellite, GaindeSat, into orbit in the first quarter of 2024. The news was disclosed last week by the Senegalese Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI).
The nanosatellite was built over three years by Senegalese engineers and technicians. The latter were trained at the Centre Spatial Universitaire de Montpellier (CSUM), under a partnership with the Senegalese government. GaindeSat will be delivered to MESRI on November 10, then handed over to a not-yet-known launcher with whom a contract has already been signed.
Putting together and launching the satellite is the first step in Senegal's national space program, SenSAT. The latter aims to make the sector a real lever for the country's socio-economic development, through the design and operation of tools in space. Ultimately, the program should meet the country’s needs for space products and services, and help it become "a space hub in the sub-region".
GaindeSat is an Earth observation satellite. The data it will collect should help improve decision-making for natural resources and land management, disaster prevention, agriculture, etc.
Senegal plans to build and launch bigger satellites in the future, with a focus on telecommunications. Recently, the country has set up a center for space data reception and monitoring.
Isaac K. Kassouwi
Over the past two decades, mobile money has grown into a cornerstone of African finance. Driven by i...
It’s a common scene in any Lomé (Togo) market, but it’s telling. A customer hands a 10,000 CFA franc...
• ECOWAS plans a rapid deployment brigade of 260,000 troops costing $2.5bn annually.• The force...
• Yunus Group opens Ivory Coast unit to finance projects, launch Yunus Pay. • Plans Ghana and Nigeri...
Nigeria eyes $671m data center market by 2030, seeks Chinese investors. Rising mobile da...
• Burkina Faso and Switzerland begin talks on their next cooperation program for 2026–2029• The new plan will replace the 2021–2025 program, which carried...
• CAR plans to raise up to CFA17.5bn ($31.9m) in Q3 on the BEAC securities market• CFA15bn already secured in July, nearly reaching the quarterly...
• Mali’s food security commissioner says national sovereignty depends on food sovereignty• Government plans 2024–2033 projects to boost farming and cut...
• South African miners turn to self-generation as tariffs, blackouts, and inflation squeeze margins.• Harmony Gold builds 39 MW solar plant, signaling...
The Mount Nimba Nature Reserve, a true cross-border treasure, stretches across Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, at the edge of Liberia. It is dominated by an...
• Grand Egyptian Museum to open November 1 near Giza Pyramids• TikTok named official digital partner for live-streamed ceremony• GEM to display 100,000+...