Uganda is set to launch its first satellite in outer space in a national space program by 2022 a revelation which was initially made in November 2019 by the ministry of science, technology, and innovations (MoSTI). The project is now taking space with a full cabinet approval this week with over UGX 10 billion budget in space project which is expected to bring a lot of benefits to the economy. Its clear that the country is betting big in this emerging industry.
The space program is expected to map resources, strengthen national security and also support innovations and will be used by several ministries within the government including the Ministry of Lands, agriculture, security, ICT to mention but a few.
The space program will share facilities with Kiira Motors and will be based in Jinja and the government has also confirmed that several Ugandans were taken to study aeronautical engineering and other related studies in countries like Russia and Japan to be ready to run the facilities once it kicks off.
Uganda is following the led of her regional counterparts with funding in the space program but, Kenya and Rwanda are still ahead. In May 2018, Kenya launched its first home-made satellite to be utilized for weather forecasting, security mapping, wildlife monitoring, and disaster management.
To facilitate the national space program with skilled resources, MoSTI collaborated with Universities in Russia and Japan to avail their training institutions for the development of Uganda’s space industry. In 2019, Ministry attracted several students who had backgrounds in Electrical, Computer, Telecommunications Engineering, and Physics & Mathematics in the National space program.
