Kenya has launched its first space satellite which will be used to observe farming trends.
It was launched from an International Space Station in Florida, the United States on April 2.
The satellite was developed by the University of Nairobi in collaboration with the University of Rome.
“This is a milestone in Kenya’s exploration into space,” Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma said.
The selected team was first announced during the TICAD VI, as a beneficially of the first round of the KiboCUBE Programme.
KiboCUBE is an initiative that offers educational and research institutions from developing countries, the opportunity to deploy cube satellites (CubeSats) from the Japanese Kibo module of the International Space Station (ISS).
Also read:
The Kenyan Cube Satellite was developed under the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which is Japan’s national aero-space agency.
It was delivered to JAXA on January 16, 2018, in preparation for its deployment into space.
The University of Nairobi christened it as “First Kenya University Nano Satellite-Precursor Flight (1KUNS-PF).”
“Kenya is very proud to be associated with and involved, through TICAD VI, in the development of the satellite. We hope this is only a beginning of many collaborations and initiatives for Kenya under the KiboCUBE programme,” Juma said.
The deployment of the satellite into space will take place later in May.