Federal Government to launch first indigenous satallite

The Federal Government yesterday fixed July 7 to launch its first made in Nigeria spacecraft, known as NIGERIASAT-X, alongside that designed and built by foreigners, NIGERIASAT-2. At present, Nigeria has only one satellite in the orbit, and the launch of these two satellites will increase the number to three, making Nigeria the second African country, besides Egypt with 4 satellites. Director General, National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, Dr. Seidu Mohammed, who disclosed this at a briefing on the launch of Nigeria two high resolution satellites, said the project cost the country 34 millions pounds. He said NIGERIASAT-X depicted the ingenuity of  Nigerians, as it was designed and built by Nigerian engineers trained in building of spacecraft with good configuration. “NIGERIASAT-X is the ingenuity of our engineers who have undergone training in the design and building of satellite. It depicts Nigeria’s first effort at developing satellites and will be launched alongside NIGERIASAT-2. NIGERIASAT-2 is a high resolution satellite with a 2.5m GDS in the panchromatic channel and it is an improvement on NigeriaSat-1 which had a resolution of 32m”.-vanguard