Senegal has marked a historic milestone with the successful launch of its first satellite, GAINDESAT-1A, from California, US, on Friday evening.
The West African nation has now become one of just 12 African nations with their own surveillance and telecommunications satellites in space.
According to a statement made by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the satellite was launched at 6:46 pm GMT on Friday from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
Alongside 115 others, the nanosatellite was launched into orbit from the Vandenberg base using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
“This is the result of five years of hard work by our engineers and technicians, this advancement marks a major step towards our technological sovereignty. I would like to express my pride and gratitude to everyone who made this project possible,” the 44-year-old Faye wrote on his official X account.
GAINDESAT-1A, which was reportedly built by Senegalese engineers in collaboration with the French Space University Centre of Montpellier (CSUM), will be used to collect data for various state agencies including those dealing with water resources, civil aviation, and meteorology.
