The space epic of Angola
Illustration for the book "Afronauts" by Christina de Middel
Angosat-1
History with Angosat-1 began in 2008, when Russia and Angola signed a framework contract for the creation and launch of a broadcasting satellite. In 2011, Vnesheconombank, VTB Bank and Roseximbank provided the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Angola with loans totaling about $ 280 million for up to 13 years, and a year later, work began on the execution of the contract.
However, they walked neither wobbly nor roll, according to a popular saying among chess players "the grandmaster thought about the first move for two hours." This circumstance alone should have alerted the Angolans, but they felt that no one could cope with this task better than the heirs of Yangel and the Queen.
In the meantime, the "Heirs" were slowly going over the options for launching the satellite - either with the Angara-A5 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, or the Zenit-3SL from the Odyssey floating platform of the Sea Launch company.
As a result, it was decided to launch site No. 45 of the Baikonur cosmodrome from the Zenit-SM launch complex, although the site was idle for a long time, and the Zenit-3SLBF rocket used for this launch was manufactured until 2014, and lay at Baikonur for about 3 -x years and was intended for a completely different satellite.
The launch took place on December 26, 2017, and the launch was managed by a joint crew of Ukrainian specialists from Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and employees of the Russian company S7 Space.
Within a few minutes, immediately after the separation of the apparatus from the Fregat-SB upper stage, technical problems began. Communication was established with the satellite, but after a while it disappeared. RSC Energia specialists managed to receive telemetry from the device only on December 29, after which a statement followed:
"The information received shows that all parameters of the on-board systems of the vehicle are normal."
This was followed by a message from the head of the RKK Vladimir Solntsev, which is worth quoting:
“The device was launched into orbit, and the launch was carried out by the Fregat-SB upper stage, as planned, with high accuracy into an orbit slightly higher than the geostationary one. On it, we tested the operation of engines and other satellite systems before arriving at the operating point in geostationary orbit. Antennas and solar panels opened up normally. At the same time, now there are certain problems with the power supply, because of which we were forced to switch the device to the power saving mode, or, as we call it, “safe mode”.
V. Solntsev specified that RKK specialists will study telemetric information in order to understand the reasons for the incident. The device itself, according to him, is now drifting in a westerly direction and will soon leave the radio visibility zone, and will return to it in mid-April. And then flight tests of Angosat-1 should resume.
You didn't need to be a specialist to understand that the device was lost. but
On December 29, the government of the Russian Federation sent a telegram to the Ambassador of Angola to Russia Joaquim Augusto de Lemouche, which said that
"This event will be an important step in bilateral cooperation in the field of high technology and space."
On January 3, the edition of Jornal de Angola, citing Russian Ambassador to Angola Vladimir Tararov, wrote that
"The successful launch of Angosat-1 and its commissioning means that Angola has entered the club of space powers."
In fact, the club of space powers includes countries that have brought out a device of their own design, with their own carrier and from their launch pad. But let's not quibble - apparently, it was about the African club of countries that have satellites in orbit.
Formally, the first African satellite was Nilesat 101, created and launched by the European Space Agency in 1998 at the request of Egypt. Despite the fact that it was not made and launched independently, two ground stations were built in Egypt to work with it, on which local personnel worked, and Nilesat is still successfully operating and provides satellite television services with other devices. In 1999, SUNSAT was launched into orbit, designed and manufactured at the Stellenbosch University of South Africa, the satellite successfully operated for 696 days and enriched the creators with invaluable experience.
In 2002 and 2003, the satellites of Algeria and Nigeria, created by the British company SSTL, went into space for remote sensing of the Earth and monitoring of emergency situations. In 2017, the GhanaSat-1 cubesat of Ghana, developed with the help of the Japanese Institute of Technology Kyushu, was launched from the ISS; in 2018, a similar and also created with the help of Japan satellite of Kenya 1KUNS-PF was launched from the station.
In February 2019, a communications satellite for Rwanda, manufactured by the British telecommunications company OneWeb and designed to provide broadband Internet, was launched from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana.
In 2022, the launch of Ugandan satellites is planned, the manufacture of which is carried out in Japan - the Ugandan authorities have already sent engineers to this country for training and studying space technologies. Next in line are Ethiopia and Mauritius, which have announced that they are currently actively working on their first satellites.
And what about Angola?
Angosat-2
Let's return to the events of 2017, which were followed by lengthy investigations and negotiations, during which the Russian side admitted that the satellite was lost due to malfunctions in the power distribution unit. That is, through the fault of the performer.
The device was insured by Sogaz and VTB Insurance for $ 121 million (in a 50-50 ratio), and the Angolan side was satisfied that the Russian Federation had undertaken to manufacture and launch a new satellite called Angosat-2.
In June 2021, the media reported that
"The United States does not give permission to the European company Airbus to supply Russia with a payload module (PLM) with relay equipment for the Angolan satellite Angosat-2 due to the presence of an American electronic component base in it."
On the basis that since May 2021, the United States has banned the supply of American space electronics to Russia, which falls under the requirements of the ITAR rules for the export of defense goods and services. That is, the launch of the device turned out to be a big question. And in Luanda they wondered - did they go to the right place for help?
Meanwhile, the practice of “turnkey purchase”, when the customer country participates in finances at best and looks with satisfaction at the launch of its satellite on TV monitors, seems to be leaving. African countries do not yet possess their own technologies, but the trend towards the development of such programs is obvious - there is even an idea of creating an African Space Agency.
According to the 2019 African Space Industry Annual Report, Africa's space industry has reached $ 7,37 billion and is expected to surpass $ 2023 billion by 10,29.
In total, the report presents 34 companies, of which 26 are private, five are public and three subsidiaries of university research institutes. 21 of these companies are located in South Africa, four each in Nigeria and Mauritius. Egypt hosts two of these companies, while Kenya, Sudan and Tunisia each have one space company.
The report also provides information on their services and areas of activity: 11 of these companies serve the national markets of the countries in which they are based, seven serve their customers and customers across the continent, and the remaining 16 are already supplying products and services to the global market.
Great importance is attached to the development of pan-African programs, in which young scientists are actively stimulated, helping them to find funding or to continue their research in the best universities or laboratories. Among the most famous are the Kwame-Nkrumah Science Prize (awarded by the African Union), the Obasanjo Science Prize (African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi), and the Africa Prize for Scientific Achievement in Space Science.
Many readers will have a skeptical grin at this point. Recall, however, that not so long ago, everything related to manufacturing in China evoked similar feelings: from irony to anecdotes. Today, the PRC has taken a leading position in the world in many positions, and the aerospace industry is just one of the areas.
And site No. 45 (Ground Launch) of the Baikonur cosmodrome has not been used since the unsuccessful launch of the Angolan satellite in December 2017.
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