Now I know that some people think that Africa will be the next big continent ...
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| African Space Program .... |
.... mainly because they are the only global continent that isn't showing signs of population fall, so may be the host to the most vibrant of societies.
.... But I didn't realise that at least one African state has its own space rocket program.
I'll bet that you didn't either (but if you did and can name the country without reading further, then well done clever clogs!), so it should be something of a surprise that the country concerned is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The company running the project in that country is Développement Tous Azimuts (DTA).
Its run by engineer and physicist Jean-Patrice Keka, whose space flight firm is planning to make another space going, three stage rocket, from old oil drums (named Troposphere 6) ... and they initially planned to man it with guinea pigs called 'Glaxionauts', who would be sent 200 km (125 miles) straight up into space. He told the world of this plan on facebook, but was inundated with complaints from an animal rights group, to not put the guinea pigs in to harms way by going on the 'terrifying flight'. Mr Keka decided to shelve the guinea pig plan, and indeed any other animalnauts, but is still proceeding with the space rocket plan.
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| Use What's Locally Available Is The Watchword Of The Program ... |
Now before you laugh this whole story off as some sort of delusional daydream by Mr Keka, according to the news report of this story and his other launches, Mr Keka has already had some successful rocket launches, notably the Troposphere 2 and 4 rockets, although none have achieved space so far. Troposphere 5 (which had a rat passenger), was launched on March 29, 2009, and was recorded as travelling to an altitude of 36 km and reaching a speed of Mach 3, before being lost as it deviated from course.
So far Troposphere 6 and its camera satellite cargo has not been launched, as the Covid-19 has impacted work, and the fund raising of the 50,000 Swiss francs (£37,000 - $50,000) needed, via a crowd funding campaign set up in Switzerland (The DRC is not able to support such a campaign). But hey ... Good Luck or Bon Chance I say ...
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