Senegal has reached a historic milestone with the successful launch of its first satellite, GAINDESAT-1A, from California on Friday evening. This achievement makes Senegal one of only 12 African nations with its own surveillance and telecommunications satellites in space.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye hailed the launch as a significant step toward Senegal’s “technological sovereignty,” expressing his pride and gratitude to all who contributed to the project’s success. “I would like to express my pride and gratitude to all those who made this project possible,” he shared in a post on X.
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Maram Kaïré, director of Senegal’s space agency, described the launch as “an important step and a historic day in our country’s progress and determination to become a space-faring nation.”
GAINDESAT-1A, a nanosatellite built by Senegalese engineers in collaboration with France’s Montpellier University Space Centre, was launched into orbit alongside 115 other satellites from the Vandenberg base in California aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite will serve multiple purposes, collecting critical data for state agencies involved in water resources, civil aviation, and meteorology, among other areas.
