With this orbiting, Djibouti has joined the exclusive group of African nations with satellites in space, alongside Kenya, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Uganda, and Angola.

The Republic of Djibouti successfully launched its first satellite, Djibouti 1A, on Saturday, November 11, from the Vandenberg spaceport in California, USA. The satellite lifted off aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

"We have put in place all the necessary elements to succeed in this project: firstly the selection of Djiboutian students, because the objective was to make the satellite but not to buy it, and have it manufactured by our students to make this technological leap and say in an uninhibited way that Djibouti is capable of manufacturing a satellite, launching it, collecting results for the climate but also getting started in development perspectives. The result is that 10 technicians and engineers were trained," said Nabil Mohamed Ahmed, Djibouti's Minister of Higher Education and Research.

The new satellite is the result of collaboration between the Djiboutian government and Centre Spatial Universitaire Montpellier-Nîmes (CSUM) in France. In 2020, the Centre began training Djiboutian engineers who played a key role in designing, constructing, and testing the nanosatellite. Successfully passing vibration tests in March, Djibouti 1A was deemed launch-ready by July. This satellite, intended for space research and communications, will gather real-time national data from climatological and seismic stations. It aims to monitor variables like temperature, rainfall, river depth, and hydrometry, contributing to enhanced agricultural production and environmental change monitoring.

Samira Njoya