Kenya is preparing to launch its first operational earth observation satellite into space. The advances in space engineering in the country must undeniably say thanks in part to the collaboration with Italy thanks to the Luigi Broglio Space Center in Ngomeni, near Malindi, which was also recently visited by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, along with Defense Minister Aden Duale. It was the Defense Ministry itself, in a joint press conference with the Kenya Space Agency, that revealed that on April 10 everything is ready to launch the first satellite, which has been named "Taifa 1" (in the Kiswahili language, taifa means "nation"). The launch will be carried out by the Space X organization via a Falcon-9 rocket from the Vandenberg base in California, USA. Kenya Space Agency said that "Taifa-1" was entirely designed and developed by a team of Kenyan engineers and that parts production and testing were carried out in cooperation with EnduroSat AD, a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer.
The Kenyan team underwent three months of customized training on the space environment, orbital mechanics, space systems engineering, space operations, and project management to be able to understand and design a mission that could survive the extreme space environment.
"The project involved research and development of the different components of satellite mission design, the entire satellite development cycle, in-orbit control, and data reception and processing," the KSA and MoD said. The result is that the satellite will provide timely and regular satellite data that will help agriculture and food security, natural resource management, disaster management and environmental monitoring, and that, "will significantly help stimulate the growth of satellite development capabilities, data analysis and processing, and application development of Kenya's nascent space economy."