Following an earlier glitch caused by a fire alarm at the mission operations control center in Dulles, Virginia, Uganda’s first-ever satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1 has finally been launched successfully.
Yesterday afternoon, the launch was interrupted by a technical glitch that saw America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) postpone it.
Today, the satellite was successfully launched in a five-minute window that opened at 1:27pm EAT.
The satellite developed by Ugandan engineers Edgar Mujuni, Bonny Omara, and Derrick Tebusweke is part of the BIRDS program, a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-space faring countries supported by Japan.
It follows Uganda’s agreement with Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan which involved upskilling the three graduate engineers to design, build, test, and launch Uganda’s first satellite.
It is a joint project between Uganda and Japan.
