Angolan President signs decree for the development of ANGOSAT-3 by Airbus
Angola’s President, João Lourenço, has signed a presidential decree for the signature of a contract between Angola and Airbus for the construction of an Earth Observation satellite named AngoSat-3. This will be Angola’s third attempt to put a satellite in orbit. AngoSat-1 had a launch failure in December 2018, and its replacement, AngoSat-2, is currently being developed in Russia.
See our 16…
Angola National Space Strategy Plan for 2019 – 2022 approved by the Ministry
The 2019 - 2022 Strategic Plan of the National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN) was approved on May 9, at the first Board of Directors of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology for the year 2019, chaired by the Minister of the MTTI, Eng José Carvalho da Rocha. The Plan aims to further the institution's mission, vision and values, in alignment with the National Space…
Angola space agency launches “AngoSat Educa”, a mobile application for space education and outreach
Technology is increasingly advanced and today it plays a very important role in almost all sectors. We see this great dependence on the academic sector, where students use means such as computers and telephones to increase their knowledge. Taking these factors into account, GGPEN has developed an application for high school students called Angosat Educa.
The Angosat Educa application is…
Four (4) more satellites from Africa before the end of 2018
By 2030 one in five people will be African. Combine the continent’s soaring population with technology, improvements in infrastructure, health and education, and Africa could be the next century’s economic growth powerhouse. In the past years, African nations have identified the importance space science and technology could have on economic growth and they have been heavily investing in it.…
AngoSat-1 Defunct Four Months After Launch
Angola's first satellite has been officially declared defunct by Russia, which had partially funded the South African nation's space project. The AngoSat-1, a communications satellite built for almost $300m, was launched late December from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Shortly after launch, communication with the device was lost.
Despite restoring contact several days later, the…
President João Lourenço Inaugurates Angola’s Satellite Mission Control Centre
On 27 January 2023, the Angolan president, João Lourenço, inaugurated the nation’s first satellite Mission Control Center (MCC) in Funda, Luanda. The MCC is an essential infrastructure capable of operating three satellites simultaneously and would be used to monitor the activity of the ANGOSAT 2, launched on 12 October 2022.
The launch ceremony was attended by several government officials,…
Leaders of Space Agencies in Africa: Angola
The Management Office for the National Space Program (GGPEN) was established through the Presidential Decree of Angola in 2003. The agency's objective is to develop strategic studies to establish cooperation agreements with technical and scientific institutions in the space domain and ensure the creation of national technological and human competencies and the transfer of technology and know-how…
About USD 4.5 billion Spent on Satellite Projects in Africa
Twenty-three years after the NileSat 101 went into orbit, Egypt and 12 other African States have launched a total of 44 satellites. Together, African countries have spent USD 4,462,463,820 on these satellite projects. As of June 2021, 21 out of 54 African states have either created a space programme or are in the process of establishing a national space policy with the recent addition of Namibia…
From Connectivity to Earth Observation: Angola’s Growing Space Economy
How GGPEN is building one of Africa's most integrated space ecosystems, and why ANGOTIC 2026 is its biggest stage yet.
When Angola hosts ANGOTIC 2026 at the Centro de Convenções de Talatona in Luanda from June 11 to 13, one institution will arrive with more than a booth. The National Space Program Management Office, known by its Portuguese acronym GGPEN, serves as a Diamond Sponsor, a keynote…
Why Africa Must Move Beyond Nano-Satellites Toward Operational Space Capability
Africa has been described, liberally and repeatedly, as nascent, budding, growing, and emerging in its space capabilities. These adjectives have clung to the continent's space programmes for decades, like labels on products perpetually stuck in beta. Yet here we are in 2026, and the pattern invites reflection: countries continue launching nanosatellites, those miniaturised satellites no bigger…