Kenya sends first operational satellite to space

Kenya sent its first operational satellite, the Taifa-1 into orbit on Saturday. The satellite was designed and built by Kenyan scientists.

The launch had been delayed many times this week owing to terrible weather; it was originally planned for Monday evening in the United States.

Several tens of satellites, including the Kenyan Taifa-1 (“Nation-1,” in Swahili), were deployed by a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket on Saturday at 06:48 GMT from the American base of Vandenberg (California).

The satellite, which was designed and built by a group of Kenyan experts, will provide information on Kenya’s agricultural and environmental monitoring that will be crucial for the future of this East African nation, which is presently suffering from a record drought.

In a joint statement last week, the Kenyan Ministry of Defense and the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) touted “a major milestone” that should give a boost to “Kenya’s nascent space economy.”

“We benefit directly from space exploration, we will be able to improve our food security,” explained to AFP Pattern Odhiambo, an engineer at KSA, who participated in the project.

“With the images of the multispectral camera of the satellite, “we will be able to have high quality data of earth observation, it will help us to predict the yield of crops”, he continued.