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Space

Ethiopia Has Launched its First Satellite Into Space (qz.com) 46

Posted by msmash from the marching-forward dept.
Ethiopia launched its first observatory satellite into space on Friday (Dec. 20), according to local reports. From a report: The 70 kilogram remote sensing satellite is to be used for agricultural, climate, mining and environmental observations, allowing the Horn of Africa to collect data and improve its ability to plan for changing weather patterns for example. The satellite will operate from space around 700 kilometers above the surface of earth. The launch, which was originally scheduled for September, took place at 03.21hours GMT from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China. The satellite was carried on board a Long March 4B rocket.

The rocket launched was aired live on Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. The Chinese satellite was designed and built at a cost of $8 million, with China paying around $6 million of the capsule's price, according to the head of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) at Addis Ababa University. Though it was launched from China its command and control center is based at the Entoto Observatory and Space Science Research Center (EORC) in Ethiopia, which is part of the Ethiopian Space, Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI).
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Ethiopia Has Launched its First Satellite Into Space More

Ethiopia Has Launched its First Satellite Into Space

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  • Starvin' Marvin In Space (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    See South Park.
  • They launched one, and then a second that followed in the first one's slipstream until just before it ran out fuel, at which point it put on a sudden burst of speed to achieve orbit.
  • Eithiopia just payed for it. Well they paid for 1/4 of it, with foreign aid. My point is that Wakanda is real.

    • US falling behind (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Monday December 23, 2019 @10:55AM (#59550178)
      When it comes time to grant mining rights to either a US or Chinese company, I'm sure they will remember who gave them a satellite. Foreign aid isn't just about charity, it's about creating allies. During the cold war, the US was all about foreign aid, competing with the USSR to see who could give more. The current administration has no interest in giving to so-called "shithole" countries, as that would upset their white nationalist base. The Chinese are more than willing to fill that gap.

      • We gave countries a bunch of stuff in the past what did we get back? Oh they did remember us alright.

        • Re:US falling behind (Score:4, Informative)

          by andydread ( 758754 ) on Monday December 23, 2019 @12:07PM (#59550490)
          We got back the ability to base our operations in many of those places, also many of them gave us valuable intelligence on what their neighbours(our adversaries) were doing, Many of them voted with us in international situations where nations vote, and lets not forget our corporations got a foothold to extract wealth from many of those countries. The list goes on and on. What do you expect for us to get back from a poor country anyways? You think we give because of charity?? What planet did you grow up on?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Foreign aid has never been about charity, at least in the 20th and 21st Centuries. It's been about controlling the economies of other countries, and frequently about destroying their subsistence farmers and replacing them with corporate-owned farms exporting cash crops in order to finance debt repayment. Your "shithole countries" are poor because we made them that way.

  • Policy and Soft Diplomacy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Monday December 23, 2019 @10:48AM (#59550154) Journal
    China paid for most of this satellite, built it, and launched from China. so at the least, there's a decent amount of gov't subsidy to a growing domestic industry going on here. I am sure that China's wider interest in this project (and other Africa satellite projects the article references) is hardly altruistic - this is soft diplomacy, and works towards furthering Chinese influence and access in Africa.

    Frankly, this is the sort of thing that the U.S. and E.U. ought to be doing more of. The U.S and E.U. are not angels, certainly, and have their own selfish motivations. The history of colonialism and exploitation weighs heavily over everything in this regard. But even so, one should be asking: who would you rather be doing this kind of work, and who would you rather be reaping the benefits? Were the West to do this kind of work, the data would probably end up available to everyone (maybe free, maybe not, maybe eventually free. See LANDSAT.)

    • +1

    • >this is the sort of thing that the U.S. and E.U. ought to be doing more of.

      They have done it and still do it though not to the same extent. It's just colonialism with a bank check. Is colonialism acceptable now? I was under the impression that it is not as you are stealing local resources for profit that leave those countries without the ability to develop themselves.

      It's easy to accept money for a future promise. What will matter is when China wants to cash in the favors it's buying. One of the reasons

      • its about monopoly control of resources. The target is the US, not Africa.

        • China has monopoly supply of Rare Earth Elements, not because of its resource richness but because it accepts the environmental damage to refine and process those minerals. Most countries are happy to export that pollution but as China grows and its interests come at odds with its neighbors, we start to see those monopolies challenged.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Helping another country develop is not colonialism. Telling them how to develop (and then taking the profits) is. I don't think the GP was proposing that the US and EU do the latter, but that they do the former to prevent China from doing the latter.

        That is not necessarily what China is planning though. China needs to guarantee themselves sea access to the rest of the world. The easiest way to do that is to have a bunch of friends spread along those sea routes. It's generally been beneficial if those friend

        • > Helping another country develop is not colonialism.

          When you frame it that way, colonialism doesn't sound so bad. Railroads, infrastructure, institutions, capital, etc.

          > Telling them how to develop (and then taking the profits) is

          That doesn't make sense. What is the difference between launching a satellite "for agricultural, climate, mining and environmental observations" that the Chinese will profit on and creating a railroad to transport workers and resources that a European will profit on? If the

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

            Colonialism involves acquiring political power over another country and exploiting it, usually for resources. I'm quite aware that the people who yell loudest about colonialism today seem to have only a vague idea about what exactly it is.

            I assume the OP believes China is pursuing a colonial agenda and that helping Ethiopia build a satellite is part of it. His suggestion is that the US and EU counter that strategy by assisting other countries *without* the colonialism part. Helping Ethiopia build a satellit

            • >acquiring political power over another country and exploiting it, usually for resources
              > China pays , builds, and launches a satellite "for agricultural, climate, mining and environmental observations
              >China needs to guarantee themselves sea access to the rest of the world.
              >The problem is, that infrastructure was built at the behest of the colonizer, for the benefit of the colonizer, and the colonized generally only really began to benefit from it after the colonizer left.

              We are in the step of s

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

                "We are in the step of seeing China acquire political power over another country."

                Are we? Any evidence of that?

                Anyway, I have no desire to argue with you what China's hypothetical motives are. The OP stated that the EU and US should counter China's moves by partnering with Ethiopia themselves. You seemed confused about what colonization actually is. Hopefully that's cleared up for you.

    • Re:Policy and Soft Diplomacy (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday December 23, 2019 @11:48AM (#59550426)

      The US and EU, are currently in its stupid phases right now. Focusing on the short term win.
      While China and Russia are playing the long game.
      Currently the citizens of the US and EU, just see the aid to these countries as handouts to people who are too lazy to "pull up their boot straps", and let China and Russia waste their money on these countries...

      However this brings soft power towards these countries. To a point where many countries will ignore the bad stuff that China and Russia is doing, allowing them to get away with more, while at the same time, being more critical of the US and EU who had done little lately to help them.

      Which is a shame, because US and EU actually socially have far more in common with African Nations then they do with Asian Nations, and if both US and EU were playing the same game that Russia and China have been playing, we would had have a real advantage.

      • >in its stupid phases right now

        There is always a lull whenever the board shifts. Continuing on as if the Soviet Union still existed in the 90, 00's, and 10's doesn't make sense. Sometimes it's good to reevaluate your position and assumptions to assess new challenges that the future bring.

        Russia wants the USSR back. China wants to take it's rightful place as a world super power and reclaim past imperial glory before European colonialism. What does the US want? No ww3 and trade. How that is achieved today

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Currently the citizens of the US and EU, just see the aid to these countries as handouts to people who are too lazy to "pull up their boot straps"

        That's because the citizens of the US and EU have never recognized that the "aid" given to the Third World was never meant to actually help them, but to manipulate their economies and gain control of their resources. Much of the "aid" is in the form of arranging loans at exorbitant interest rates for projects that will enrich and corrupt the recipient country's leadership and mostly benefit western corporations. If you don't know how it actually works I'd encourage reading 'Confessions of an Economic Hit

    • "China paid for most of this satellite, built it, and launched from China. "

      That's because they already own huge ....parts of lands in Africa.

  • Ethiopia did not launch a satellite. China did. According to Necro81, Ethiopia didn't even pay for most of it. Correct headline would be "China launches satellite claimed to benefit Ethiopia."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ghoul ( 157158 )

      A better headline would be Chinese Developmental Aid enables Ethipia to "Operate" its first satellite

  • I'm not trying to be a downer here, but why? There are literally hundreds of satellites already in orbit that could gather this information for Ethiopia. The money spent on sending yet another pointless object in orbit could have been better utilized in the country itself in my opinion.
  • Watched the broadcast of the launch. Events concerning the space industry for me is always waiting for new discoveries. I still believe we're not the only ones in the universe. I watch a lot of scientific programs. I have a tv android device connected https://www.infomir.eu/eng/pro... [infomir.eu]. The work of scientists shocks me. I don't understand why there's so little talk about space at school and at the institute?

  • Yes yes, I know Ethiopans are starving. I know of the warmongering.
    And I know this only happens, because China needs its minerals and job-creation schemes.

    But still! Whole Africa gets all kinds of infrastructure through it. (Remember Top Gear being surprised at the brand-new roads?)
    And now even a bit of space tech?

    Come on! It will change how Ethiopians look at themselves! And with a mindset that says "We won't be the 3rd world anymore!", maybe, just maybe, there will be something good coming out of it.

    And I

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      According to the IEEE the countries of Africa have the opportunity to "leapfrog" a generation of technology. With the installed infrastructure of the US and EU, which slows deployment of new replacement technology, there are areas of Africa that are going to go directly to the newer generation of tech. Cellphone deployment in Africa outstripped that of North America, smartphone banking has been the norm there for a generation, many areas are getting their first electrical systems in the form of renewables

  • If you are launching a rocket that you could only afford a quarter of the cost of... with a chinese satellite, on a Chinese rocket, from a chinese launchpad... to monitor all the Chinese agriculture in your country... You can't really say that *you've* done anything, can you?

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