Kenya successfully launched its first operational earth observation satellite on Saturday, according to live video from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company.
The satellite was built by a group of nine Kenyan engineers and will be used to monitor agricultural and environmental conditions for disaster management and famine prevention.
After three weather delays, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Taifa-1 satellite blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 06:48 GMT.
“Taifa-1 separation confirmed,” Space X said over the radio after the satellite split from the rocket an hour and four minutes after liftoff.
According to Capt. Alloyce Were, an aeronautical engineer and deputy director of Navigation and Positioning at the government-run Kenya Space Agency, the satellite’s capacity to record photographs would aid in monitoring the consequences of climate change. The satellite’s launch was set for Saturday.
Both changes in forest cover and the expansion of urbanization are visible.
The space agency spent 50 million Kenyan shillings ($372,000) over two years to build the satellite with the help of the Bulgarian aerospace business Endurosat.
According to the group, it will begin to disintegrate after five years of operation and finally reach the atmosphere, where it will burn up.
The rocket delivering Turkey’s payload was also hauling 50 others from across the globe as part of SpaceX’s rideshare program.
