The space programme of Kenya has been largely shaped by

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

ial latitude, and has basis of existed foreign infrastructure and experience. The development of the programme started in May 2012.

History

The first satellite launched from Kenya's soil was in 1970. The satellite, named Uhuru, was equipped to study celestial X-ray astronomy. Kenya was involved in the launching of the

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...

Malindi satellites. Discussions for a space center began in 1983, but stalled.

Space center development

Estimated costs for the space center are KSh.10 billion/=. The main goal of the space agency is to develop Earth observation satellites that can be used to monitor things from the weather to ongoing violence. The space center project is being driven by Dr. John Kimani, the lead scientist at the Ministry of Defence.

Conditions

As one of only a handful of equatorial states, and because it is bordered to the east by the Indian Ocean, Kenya is ideally sited for a

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport''—and even more so ''cosmodrome''—has traditionally referred to sites capable of ...

to efficiently launch satellites into

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

and other orbits. The closest regional facility, and the only one ever active in East Africa, is the Italian-owned Broglio Space Centre (also known as San Marco) near the Kenyan coast. In 1962, the agreements between Italy and Kenya and between

University of Rome La Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

and Royal Technical College (now University of Nairobi) were signed and prolonged later for using of Kenyan territorial waters and building of base camp for two main sea platforms of the spaceport on Kenyan territory near

Ras Ngomeni Ras Ngomeni is a cape on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. A Swahili settlement lay just to its south between the 5th and 13th centuries. It continued as a harbour into the 16th century., p. 34. According to the '' Book of the Zanj'', Ngomeni was f ...

and Ungwana Bay. Later, for servicing of San Marco spaceport among other needs, a tracking station in the nearest Kenyan city of

Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centr ...

was created (and still operates) by Italy and

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

. After the end of the operation of the San Marco/Broglio space center by Italians, the Kenyan government attempted to found a mostly commercial national space programme based on a retake of this spaceport and the use of Malindi station but the idea caused economic and diplomatic troubles between Kenya and Italy and the idea was discarded.

Developments

In building a launchpad for modern rockets to be able to launch satellites into geostationary orbit, Kenya intends to involve other partners such as

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

that already produce launch vehicles for sea-platform

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...

spaceports. The Kenyan government offered Ukraine the right to develop the spaceport for launch of its own rockets and the facilities for assembly of satellites. The collaboration with

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

has allowed to produce 1KUNS-PF, the first Kenyan nano-satellite, consisting in a 1U

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

developed both by the

University of Nairobi The University of Nairobi (uonbi or UoN; ) is a college, collegiate research university based in Nairobi and is the largest List of universities and colleges in Kenya, university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dat ...

(the ex-Royal Technical College) and the S5Lab research team of the Italian University. The satellite was launched on 11 May 2018 from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

In fiction

Andy Weir Andrew Weir (; born June 16, 1972) is an American novelist. His 2011 novel '' The Martian'' was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016 and his 2 ...

's novel ''

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

'' Kenya achieves dominance in the Space launch industry due to its fuel-saving location on the equator and political changes made by the government in the book.

References

External links

Kenya in Encyclopedia Astronautica

Kenya, Italy diplomatic tiff simmers over Malindi space centre
{{Use British English, date=January 2014

Space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...