Praise for Ethiopia’s First Satellite

On December 20th, 2019, Ethiopia launched its first ever satellite under the auspices of the non-governmental Ethiopia Space Science Society [ESSS]. This was the result of two important enabling events in 2012. The first was an ESSS agreement with the China National Space Administration. The second was US$5m donation by Mohammed Al Amoudi to the ESSS to enable it to set up the first Ethiopian space observatory in the hills of Entoto near Addis Ababa where the satellite now has its command and control centre.

Twenty Ethiopian engineers have been trained by the Chinese and will work in-country to make effective use of the new national asset, saving up to US$11m on the foreign currency that is currently spent on information from foreign-owned satellites. In addition, Ethiopia plans to use the ETRSS-1 space satellite for a range of activities, including agricultural transformation, forest resource monitoring, weather forecasting and assessment of mining potential assessment as well as infrastructure development and monitoring.

Mohammed said, “When the opportunity to support this initiative emerged, I saw the potential. Ethiopia is a rapidly modernising country. A satellite can provide much needed information specific to the country. I had faith in the ESSS and in my country of birth and I am very pleased to see that the launch was successful.”