AFRICA’S SPACE HERITAGE
Keith Gottschalk, retired senior lecturer, University of the Western Cape
In 1965 France became the third country in the world (after the Soviet Union/Russia and the USA) to launch its own satellites from its own rockets . The first four French satellites were all launched from Algeria . At the same time an Italian university used United States rockets to launch satellites from Kenya . Under total military censorship the apartheid regime built a satellite launch vehicle, a reconnaissance satellite, and an orbital launch range . This had French and Israeli provenance – but many unanswered questions tantalise historians even today . The lecture will discuss this history and conclude with a brief look at the just launched Pan-African Space Agency.
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