HISTORY OF SATELLITE IN NIGERIA

History of Nigeria’s Satellite Launch from 27^th September, 2003-15^th June, 2013

          On 27^th of September 2003, a satellite called ‘NigeriaSat-1’ was the first Nigerian satellite to be built and launched, this was done by a satellite technology company called Surrey Space Technology Limited (SSTL ) based in the United Kingdom. This was carried out under the Nigerian government sponsorship for $30 million. The NigeriaSat-1 was launched from Russia Plasetsk spaceport by the ‘Kosmos-3M’ rocket. This satellite was part of the world-wide Disaster Monitoring Constellation System.

          In 2004, ‘NigComSat-1’, a satellite built in China, was Nigeria’s second launced satellite and the first African communication satellite. It was launched into space on 13 may 2007, abroad a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China. On the 11^th of November, 2008, the NigComSat-1 failed in orbit after running out of power due to an anomaly in its solar array.

The third and fourth  Nigerian satellite to be launched were the NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X, thry were built as a high resolution earth satellitie also by SSTL for DMC (Disaster Monitoring Constellation) system also., these satellites were simultaneously launched into orbit by Ukrain Dnepr rocker from a Ysany military base in Russia on the 17^th of August 2011.

          On the 19^th of December 2011, a new Nigerian communications satellite,e was launched into orbit by China in Xichang. The satellite according to the president of Nigeria as of that time was paid for by the insurance of the failed NigComSat-1 satellite. The NigComSat-1R is the replacement of the NigComSat-1 which was launched on 19^th of December 2011.

Therefore, Nigeria has a total of four Satellites currently in orbit, the NigeriaSat-1, NigComSat-1R, NigeriaSat-2, and NigeriaSat-X.

Characteristics of the satellites.

The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) is the national space agency of Nigeria. It is a part of the federal ministry of science and technology and it is overseen by the National Council on Space Science Technology.

The NigeriaSat-1 is a part of the world-wide Disaster Monitoring Constellation System, the primary objectives of the satellites were: to be able to detect and give early warning signal of environmental disasters (such tornadoes, tsunamis, cyclones etc), to also be able to help detect and control desertification in the northern part of Nigeria, to be able to assist in demographic planning, to establish the relationship between vectors and the environment that breeds malaria and to give early warning signals on future outbreaks of meningitits using remote senseing technology, to provide distant learning in the country, and to aid in conflict resolution and border dispute by mapping out state and international borders.

The NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X are both high resolution earth satellites, they are both disaster monitoring constellations also, they have a 2.5-metre resolution panchromatic, 5-metre multispectral, and 32-metre multispectral antennas. The objective NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X mission is to provide high-resolution (Pan and MS) imagery in a swath width of 20km, it also carries Disaster Monitoring Constellation continuity payload to provide observation continuity with NigeriaSat-1, it was also developed to: supply security, agricultural and geology applications, to support mapping and security applications, to support development of the national GIS infrastructure, to also provide continuity and compatatibility with the existing NigeriaSat-1 satellite.

NigComSat-1R is a super hybrid geostationary communications satellite with 28 active transponders.