The Pearl of Africa Sat-1, Uganda’s first indigenous satellite is Friday December 2, set to be deployed into the lower earth orbit to start operations and benefit the country.
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the recently launched satellite has reached the space station and will be deployed from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), a company that performs various activities from basic research to development and utilisation in the fields of space and aeronautics.
The first-ever satellite was launched into space on November 2, aboard an American spaceship at the NASA control centre in Dulles, Virginia.
This joint project between Uganda and Japan, will benefit Uganda in various areas such as provision of 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.
During its launch, Edgar Mujuni, one of the engineers who developed this satellite said that the PearlAfricaSat-1 will provide about 20-metre resolution images for Uganda to facilitate water quality, soil fertility, and land use and cover analysis.
“The statistical data collected by the satellite will also help distinguish bare ground from forest and farmland and possibly indicate the quality of agricultural growth to improve the livelihood of citizens in the country,” authorities said.