From Business Standard

After South Africa and Nigeria, Ethiopia is becoming a hub of Africa’s aspirations in space with the East African nation finalizing the installation of two huge deep-space observatory telescopes to promote space research in the region, a prelude to its developing a space mission by launching its own satellites.

“The two telescopes with their telecommunications technology allowing remote internet-controlled operations mark the first steps of Ethiopia’s future space ambitions,” says Solomon Belay, director of Entoto Space and Astronomical Observatory Centre.

The Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS), which has been installing the two telescopes, each of one-meter diameter, at an elevated point over 20 km from the capital Addis Ababa, is at the forefront of this programme. Over the next three to five years, the ESSS plans to launch three satellites in space joining South Africa and Nigeria as the third African country with a space mission.

Ethiopia is not the first African nation to look to the skies. South Africa has its own National Space Agency and, in 2009, the African Union announced plans to establish The African Space Agency. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, has also called for a continent-wide space programme.

Written by Hadra Ahmed|Read more at Business Standard