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(Photo / CCTV)
The Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite-1, the African nation’s first satellite, has been delivered to its Ethiopian operators, according to the China Academy of Space Technology, which designed and built the spacecraft.
An award ceremony was held earlier this month in Beijing with participants from both countries, it said in a statement.
Ethiopia’s ambassador to China, Teshome Toga Chanaka, said at the ceremony that thanks to the unconditional support of the Chinese government and the hard work of the project team, the Ethiopian people now own their first satellite.
Through the ETRSS-1 project, he said, Ethiopia now has a large number of remote sensing imagery to facilitate climate change analysis. Many young Ethiopians have started learning about space activities, and some of them have become professionals in satellite operations or climate change research after taking training sessions offered by China.
The space effort is a symbol of the nations’ bilateral strategic partnership, the ambassador said, noting that the two will continue to strengthen cooperation in the field of satellites.
Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, said at the event that the two sides’ cooperation in the field is part of their joint effort to address climate change and that China will continue to support Ethiopia’s search for space capacity to help with their socio-economic development.
ETRSS-1 was sent into space by a Chinese Long March 4B carrier rocket launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province in December last year.
With a multispectral wide-field imager and some other scientific devices, the 65-kilogram spacecraft is expected to operate for at least two years at an altitude of about 600 kilometers to obtain multispectral remote sensing data on agriculture, water resources. , Ethiopia’s disaster prevention and humanitarian aid and climate change research, project managers said.
The costs of research, construction and launching of the satellite were covered by the Chinese government.
The academy said the satellite program agreement was signed by the two governments in October 2016. It said the program has become a good example of developing countries’ cooperation on climate change.
The academy noted that, in addition to the satellite and its ground control and application systems, China has also offered training sessions for Ethiopian personnel.
Ethiopian Education Minister Getahun Mekuria, who was Minister of Innovation and Technology at the time the satellite was launched, told China Daily in an earlier interview that the data obtained by the satellite would be critical for his country.
“It will be very useful in many aspects, such as agricultural monitoring, mineral exploration, environmental monitoring and weather forecasting,” he said.
He said Ethiopia now wants to cooperate with China in other space fields, such as satellite communication systems, satellite navigation and positioning systems, and manned space missions.
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