Posted on 09/29/2003 2:38:47 AM PDT by FormerlyAnotherLurker
Nigerian Satellite Blasts Into Orbit
Sat Sep 27, 6:16 PM ET
By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
LAGOS, Nigeria - A Nigerian satellite blasted into orbit Saturday aboard a Russian rocket, propelling one of the poorest nations on earth into space for the first time.
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Millions of Nigerians watched the launch — at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome — on live television.
"It makes me proud to be a Nigerian," said Prosper Sunday, a 27-year-old security guard in Lagos. "It shows our nation is progressing. We've joined the space age."
The government plans to use the $13 million satellite to monitor water resources, soil erosion, deforestation and disasters, space agency spokesman Solomon Olaniyi told The Associated Press.
It will be used to watch military facilities and the country's oil pipelines and infrastructure. Nigeria is one of the world's largest exporters of oil, but thieves siphon off hundreds of thousands of barrels everyday.
"It's a great feat for Nigeria," said Joseph Akinyede of the National Space Research and Development Agency, based in the capital, Abuja. "We have a footprint in space."
On Earth, Nigeria is struggling to provide 132 million citizens with clean water, basic health services and education.
Most villages outside state capitals have no running water or electricity, 70 percent of the country's roads are dirt tracks, and over 30 percent of the population is illiterate. Per capita income is about $290, and less than one percent have telephones, according to the World Bank.
"The satellite is a waste of money," said 21-year-old Gabriel Mordi, selling mobile phone cards on a dusty street in Lagos, a city that is a colossal sprawl of millions of rusting tin-roof shacks and palm trees. "They should be helping the poor. Most people here are just struggling to find something to eat."
In the northern city of Kano, barber Adamu Ahmed, 27, who was shaving a man in a blue-flowing robe on a sweltering street, said he was unaware of the launch since he had no radio or TV.
"They haven't told us much about space," he said. "I've heard of people going to the moon, but I don't know how they got there."
The word for satellite is "tauraru danadam," which means "human moon" in the local Hausa language.
The Nigerian government hopes one day to build and launch its own satellites.
The NigeriaSat-1 was produced by British-based company, Surrey Satellite Technology, with the help of Nigerian technicians trained in Britain, Olaniyi said.
The Russian Kosmos-3M rocket that lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome with NigeriaSat-1 carried five other satellites with it — two from Russia, and one each from Turkey, Britain and South Korea.
A team of 15 Nigerian scientists and engineers will control their country's satellite from a ground station in Abuja during its five to seven year life-span, Olaniyi said.
I have visions of even more Nigerian scams showing up.
A $13m satellite?? what does it do?? Is it powered by a Commodore 64?
Or is this so that all the world can now watch Nigerian Islamic murderers
stone and kill women for "adultery" while the men walk free?
Make that an SX-64....I used to own this sucker. This was built for the business market, but I used it for my first MIDI controlled recording studio! It rocked!!!
Lame Commodore marketing killed it.
Check this out!!
http://sx64.opsys.net/ Commodore SX-64 Upgrade!!
Wait a second. You mean that the nice email from the Nigerian fellow was a scam??!
I'm sorry, too late. I just bought a bridge in NY city. The money I can make from tolls alone will be staggering!
I've always said you people were overpaid. ;-)
A C-64 is more powerful than the onboard computers used in Apollo. In fact, one of the interplanetaries I was on used the obscure 1802 microprocessor. Same vintage as the 6502 (10) microprocessor used in the Commodore.
p.s. 13 mil is not much for a satellite. However, I bet the cost of the launch was not included in that price.
Most of the GPS satellites currently flying (the ones built by Rockwell) are flying with space-rated TI-99 processors....
BREAKING. . . Pot calls kettle black!
Solomon Olaniyi? SOLOMON OLONAYI? But, he told me that his attorney was going to send ME the $13 million just as soon as I gave him my Social Security Number and Bank Account Information. I gave him all my personal information over a week ago and now I read this!!! I'm really starting to doubt whether I'll ever get this money.
Just point to a map of Nigeria and you can spot a disaster. Saves a lot of money.
Do they even have electricity to run Lagos Mission Control?
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