Africa-Press – Mauritius. Ever heard of space wars? Neither had I until I had to write this article about facts you didn’t know about space exploration in Africa. Space wars was a competition between the US and the Soviet Union to have the biggest and most sophisticated space gear, and to have more people exploring space.
Essentially, both countries wanted to be the first to develop artificial satellites, human space flight, unmanned space probes, and other kinds of aerospace capabilities.
The US created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 after the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in 1957. There was no way the US was going to let the Soviets win the space race so NASA’s first objective post-creation was to launch a manned vehicle into the earth’s orbit.
The space war was also one of the reasons the US appropriated $800 million in student loans so students could learn more about the hard sciences. There was a lot of back and forth between the Soviets and the US when it came to space wars but the US landed on the moon first, so I guess we can say they won.
Where was Africa in all of this? I bet you didn’t know that Africa played a major role in making the US’ first moon landing a success. You’re probably wondering how; keep reading and you’ll discover facts you didn’t know about space exploration in Africa.
Five facts you didn’t know about space exploration in Africa Africa recently got into the space exploration conversation again after Kenya announced the launch of TAIFA-1 Sat, its first operational earth observation satellite. While Kenya is new to the satellite launch game, other African countries have been doing since 1999.
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