Is Nigeria’s Space Programme Useless?

A Nigerian engineer at work on one of the country's satellites developed in a British laboratory

Nigeria was in the news recently after British politicians criticized their government for subsidizing Nigeria’s space programme, a nation where 70 percent of people live below the poverty line despite being an oil-rich country.  

Nigeria’s first astronauts are being trained to join Russian, Chinese or American missions within the next two years under the country’s space programme. It is believed to have already received £300m of the £1.14bn in foreign aid earmarked for it over the five years of the coalition government in the UK.

Nigeria's National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA) launched its first orbiter, NigeriaSat-1, in 2003. The roughly $13 million cost was paid for by the Nigerian government, but it was built by Surrey Space Technology (SST) in the UK and launched from a Russian spaceport.

The spacecraft was equipped with high-resolution optical and infrared cameras.

NewScientist magazine published an article, How Nigeria has been using its satellites, and in it explained some the usefulness of Nigeria’s satellites. According to the article, Nigeria’s satellites support food production in the region and disaster relief around the world – including helping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

NigeriaSat-1 lasted until 2012, four years longer than expected. It was succeeded by NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X, which both launched in 2011 carrying similar instruments. These satellites were also made at SST, with Nigerian engineers helping to build the latter. Apart from its environmental mission, it is believed that the satellites' high-resolution images of the country will help Nigeria review electoral boundaries ahead of its general elections in 2015.

The NigeriaSats are also part of the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation, coordinated by SST. This network of satellites includes Chinese, Spanish and UK spacecraft that can provide rapid images from space when environmental disasters strike.

In 2005 NigeriaSat-1 was the first satellite to send back pictures of the east coast of the US following Hurricane Katrina. And the orbiter contributed images to aid workers following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Nigeria provides disaster-related imagery for free, but the country generates income from the satellites by selling other image data.

NASRDA also commissioned a Chinese-built communications satellite, NigComSat-1, that launched from China in 2007. The satellite lost power a year later and was replaced in 2011 by NigComSat-1R, which is currently providing broadcast and internet services in Nigeria.