Nigeria has promised to put an astronaut in space by 2030 and a Nigerian delegation is due to visit China this month to discuss plans for Africa’s first manned space mission, Daily Mail reported.

There has been criticism in the U.K. over funding African countries that are launching astronauts into space when two thirds of Africans live on less than $2 a day.

Ethiopia is also expanding its space program, as are Ghana, Kenya, Gabon and South Africa.

Nigeria has already sent six satellites into space and officials defend their space plans as key to development. Two of Nigeria’s satellites were built in the U.K., which gave Nigeria more than a $1.4 billion in aid between 2010 and 2015 to combat poverty and starvation. The first Nigerian satellite cost $14 million and was launched in Russia.

“The space program is very important for a country like Nigeria,” said Ogbonnaya Onu, a minister of science and technology.

The U.K. gives away more money in aid than Australia, Canada, France, Spain and Portugal combined, according to official figures released last week, DailyMail reported.

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development in January announced $97 million in emergency drought assistance to Ethiopia, AssociatedPress reported.

Poor countries want space programs more than rich ones do, according tech news site ArsTechnica:

Investment from poor countries has helped double global government spending on space programs in the last decade. It was $73 billion in 2012 but only $35 billion in 2000, according to a report by the space market consultancy Euroconsult. In that time, NASA’s budget fell from $18.7 billion to $17.7 billion. More than 70 countries now have space programs of some sort.

For a developing country facing its worst drought in 50 years, spending millions of dollars to look at the stars might seem frivolous, TheGuardian reported.

The Ethiopian Space Science Society, launched in 2004 by three aspiring astronomers, recently opened East Africa’s only space observatory on the summit of Entoto, overlooking Addis Ababa.

Now it’s is investigating a second site for a bigger observatory and wants to launch satellites within a decade.

Britain is a major donor to Ethiopia, handing over more than $425 million this year despite human rights concerns.

Ethiopia is an ideal location for space exploration and critics can’t see the bigger picture, says Abinet Ezra of the Ethiopian Space Science Society, TheGuardian reported.

Space research will expand the economy, improve agriculture, fight climate change and create jobs, Ezra said.

Ghana – given $52 million-a-year in U.K. aid – launched a Space Science and Technology Institute to co-ordinate projects and develop the country’s space talent.

Kenya and Gabon are pursuing similar space programs.

South Africa, which established a space agency six years ago, is building the  Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope in the Karoo with Australia and nine other African countries. It will be the world’s largest radio telescope.

The development underlines the speed of change in Africa.

Jonathan Isaby, CEO of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is deeply depressing that ministers still think it appropriate to be sending taxpayer-funded aid to countries that can afford their own space programs.” A government spokeswoman said no British aid was spent on helping developing countries put people into space, DailyMail reported.

Americans get the space race, according to the Smithsonian’s site, Air&Space:

If NASA were to disappear tomorrow, if we never put up another Hubble Space Telescope, never put another human being in space, people in this country would be profoundly distraught. Americans would feel that we had lost something that matters, that our best days were behind us, and they would feel themselves somehow diminished.

I think we all know why people strive to accomplish such things. They do so for reasons that are intuitive and compelling to all of us but that are not necessarily logical. They’re exactly the opposite of acceptable reasons, which are eminently logical but neither intuitive nor emotionally compelling.

Most of us want to be, both as individuals and as societies, the first or the best in some activity. We want to stand out. This behavior is rooted in our genes. We are today the descendants of people who survived by outperforming others.

A second reason is curiosity.

Finally, we humans have, since the earliest civilizations, built monuments. We want to leave something behind to show the next generation,. This is the impulse behind cathedrals and pyramids, art galleries and museums.

The multi-million dollar Entoto Observatory and Research Centre has become one of the best places to view Orion’s Belt, which looks bigger in Ethiopia than from other parts of the northern hemisphere.

Public and private donors funded the Ethiopian observatory including Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Sheikh al Amoudi, TheGuardian reported. The government took over running it in March.

Extravagant? Space enthusiasts say space science is essential for Ethiopia’s development, whether using earth observation to improve agriculture or lowering the costs of communications through the launch of its own satellites – which it currently rents from other countries for inflated sums, according to TheGuardian.

“It was our priority to convince the government – now they have been convinced,” said Solomon Belay Tessema, director of the Ethiopian Space Science Society and one of its founding members.

Ethiopia’s long history of stargazing predates Christianity – a scholarly tradition tied to agriculture. Some historians argue that the first study of celestial bodies can be traced back to Ethiopia.

The society believes that the dry climate and Lalibela’s 4,200-meter-high peaks have the same stargazing potential as the famous Atacama desert in Chile.

International recognition  and a visit from NASA administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden in 2014, gave the Ethiopian Space Science Society extra motivation as it continues to lobby the government for research funding and support.

The society hopes to represent east and central Africa in the space science field, and is supportive of South Africa’s and Nigeria’s space programs. Development remains the society’s main aim, but they still have plans to send an Ethiopian astronaut into space, TheGuardian reported.