Ethiopia signs communications satellite development agreement with China

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Ethiopia and China have signed another agreement to jointly build a communication and broadcast satellite. The agreement was signed yesterday in Addis Ababa by Dr. Solomon Belay, Director General of Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, and Han Chinping, Deputy President of Chinese Rocket Company.

The satellite will be built by experts from Ethiopia and China and will be the second satellite by the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute for the Ethiopian government. In November 2018, we wrote about the country’s plan to launch its first satellite in 2019; the Ethiopia’s Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Satellite ETRSS-1 will now be launched into space in November 2019 according to the director. The design, development and manufacturing of the satellite are done in collaboration with the Chinese at $8 million cost. China has provided training and $6 million for the project.

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This communication and broadcast satellite will be Ethiopian government second attempt to put a satellite in orbit with the construction phase of the project set to begin in June, 2019.


This is a developing story and more information will follow later.