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The commercial space sector has been having a moment for the past few years in African countries went in on the investments.
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A new spaceport in Somalia funded by the Turkish government could be the latest contribution to the continent's twenty billion dollar space sector, But will this one actually make it to launch Nigerians?
Is we count down to the launch of Nigeria's communication on satellite Hi four three two one zero.
On today's Next Africa Podcast?
Will space ever be the future technology investment Africa needs? Or more big promises that end up fizzling out with less of a bang and more of a whimper. I'm Jennifer's Abasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent driving the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Bruce Einhorn is a Bloomberg reporter who covers all things space, and he's joining us today alongside technology reporter Loney Prinzlu.
Hello to you both, Thank you so much for joining us.
So.
As revealed on Bloomberg News earlier this week, the Turkish government is in talks with Somalia to build a new space facility, both for Turkey's versioning space program as well as for testing ballistic missiles. Bloomberg reporter Salchen Hacho Glu actually told us what's being planned.
Based on his reporting.
Turkey is a nascent space program and needs a spaceport to be able to test fire the rockets.
That it's developing.
They have been looking for a country closs the Equator, and they have decided to hold talks with Somalia, which is in advanced stage, to be able to build a spaceport and test fire rockets that they are going to send to space. However, the other side of the story is Turkey has also developing ballistic missile program and they also want to use this site to test fire ballistic missiles that they are not able to test in Turkey. Of short, Turkey they need a bigger space to be
able to test long range missiles. Turkey and Somalia has a defense industry cooperation agreement.
Turkyo is already giving a lot.
To Somalia from financial aids to building schools providing security, and in July both countries agreed to expand the defense cooperation between them.
Bruce, Why is Africa attractive for space launches? Why are we seeing Turkey looking to Somalia of all places for launch sites?
Jen There are some important geographic advantages that Africa offers for anybody who wants to launch rockets. It's helpful if you're launching a rocket into geostationary orbit. They're called geostationary because they travel in space, but they're always over the same place on the Earth. And if you're over the equator, that gives you the broadest range of coverage for your satellite. If you can launch your rocket near the equator, then it makes it much easier to put your satellite into
orbit over the equator. Another advantage to launching in say Somalia, potentially would be that it's right along the Indian Ocean, so you can launch your rocket along the ocean and there's quite a big distance to go in the ocean before you get to land, and so you have less reason to worry about the neighbors being upset about anything from your rocket potentially falling on them.
And Bruce, this is your beat, so you cover this day and day out. Maybe you can tell us then a bit about some of the other proposals that we've seen similar to this, because there is some reporting out about how Jibouti was also talking about building its own spaceport.
How does this compare to that plan?
The Djibouti example is a very good one because it shows just how there's potential, but also there's a lot of pitfalls. So in Earl three, a Chinese company announced that it had signed an MoU, a memorandum of understanding with Jibouti to build a spaceport, really big facility. The investment was going to be about a billion dollars. Djibouti, like Somalia, right there close to the equator, so there are some big advantages to launching from there. That deal
never really got beyond the MoU phase and fizzled. So that does indicate that while we should be really interested in saying what Turkey's thinking, about for Somalia. It's certainly not a done deal. We've seen before that it's possible that something gets announced and then doesn't happen.
Promise and pitfalls. That's a good way of describing it. I mean, LONEI jump in here because maybe you can talk about Africa space industry then as a whole, because these are just two examples potentially of the growing interests really in getting a lot of African countries involved. But what have we seen from the sector up until this point.
Jane I would say not too many African countries are highly active. The bigger ones that we're seeing as South Africa, they are busy building out a three billion dollar telescope and that will be actually the biggest radio telescope in the world.
Once it's done.
Then in Nigeria they do have a launching facility. In Algeria they have a launching facility that they've inherited from the French. Altogether, there's about eleven launching facilities in Africa, but really only about three to five of those get used satellites. We've seen about fifty eight or so going into space by the bigger countries.
There's also a third spaceport in Eastern Africa that's really interesting, which is an Italian one which was established back in the nineteen sixties that has been used several times for launches over the years, starting in nineteen sixty seven and was the first satellite launched from there. All the way through the late nineteen eighties. Altogether, there were twenty missions twenty orbital missions from lunch from there. They're still operational there.
It's called the Luigi Broglio Malindi Space Center in Kenya.
What a name.
That example just goes to show Bruce that this is definitely not new to the continent by any means.
And as Loni was just pointing.
Out, there are projects that have been put in place. But if it is potentially a twenty billion dollar industry, I mean, why haven't we seen this really take off in the way that it should on the continent.
There are a couple of reasons that things haven't really developed at the pace that maybe some people would like to see. There are some security issues in places like Somalia, in places like Jibouti, there are also issues related to
technology exports. So if you have a satellite that you want to launch on a rocket, there's a good chance that you've got American technology on your satellite, American technology in your rocket, and the United States has pretty strict rules when it comes to the export of technology that has the potential to be used in missofs, so military applications for clear reasons are things that the United States is concerned about, and so most rockets that are launched.
Most satellites that go into orbit launch from the United States from Florida, from Cape Canaveral or from California at van Berg Base. There are other places that rockets get most so you can launch from French Guyana, say, Chinese rockets launch from China, Russian rockets launch from Russia or
from Kazakhstan. There are also some rockets that get launched from New Zealand, but by and large, with the exception of Russian and Chinese rockets, other rockets get launched from either the US or from US allies, and some of those countries have agreements with the United States that allow for the export of some of this restricted technology. Without that kind of permission, it's difficult to build the launch industry, and African countries at the moment just don't have it.
And stick with US, Bruce and Loni.
When we come back, we'll look at the role African countries are playing in those big diplomatic battles over space expiration.
We'll be right back. Welcome back.
Today, we're talking space and the role African countries could potentially play in the new space race.
Bruce. Space has, of course, as.
Many of us know, been a battle between superpowers for decades.
In the fifties and sixties, it.
Was Russia and the US, but now China is a big rival in this whole space race. How would you describe the space diplomacy and what we're seeing right now in twenty twenty four.
As you point out, there is a big competition between the United States and China in space, and there is a role that Africa plays in that both the US and China want to send astronauts to the Moon. No people have been on the Moon since the last Apollo astronauts, and in the early nineteen seventies, the Americans have the Artemis program that is trying to get astronauts back to the Moon within a few years. China wants to get its astronauts to the Moon for the first time by
the end of the decade. Longer term, the Chinese have a project that they initially launched with Russia a few years ago. They want to build a research station at the south pole of the Moon, and they're trying to get countries to sign up and say we support that. Meanwhile, the Americans have initiative of their own as part of
the Artemis program. Related to that, there's something called the Artemis Accords, which is an agreement among the United States and like minded countries about how activity on the Moon and elsewhere in space will be conducted going forward to the United States has gotten about forty plus countries to sign up for that, some African countries. Nigeria is one and Gola is another. I think there may be a
few others. China got a later start compared to the Americans in trying to win diplomatic allies for its vision, but the Chinese have had some success. Most notably recently was Senegal signing up saying that it was supporting this Chinese project for the lunar south Pole. So at the moment, there are about a dozen countries that have signed up for China's project, as opposed to forty plus for the US.
But there are a lot of countries in Africa, so there's a lot of opportunity for both sides to try to win support from African countries. It's important not just for what happens in space, but also for the rivalry between the two countries here.
On I wonder Loney, considering the space race that is going on in space and also on the ground here. I mean, what's the outlook you think for the industry as a whole on the continent, especially if you consider that investment gap that you were talking about.
Look, a lot of it is in the satellite space and Tina Cums's very big in Africa. I think there's a plan to launch another one hundred and teen satellites for and ground observation and all of that. There's also a push by Rwanda. There's fifty four countries in Africa and they all follow their own route, so there isn't really lack a considered effort or one plan, but there's definitely, as we said, there's definitely a push to do more.
And Bruce, I just wanted to finish with you on your outlook for the business of space, considering you have the newsletter titled that what's your outlook for the next few years, especially considering what is going on on the ground here on Earth, how does this play out over the next few years, What should we be watching for and what is Africa's role in that.
I think Africa has a really big role to play in the years to come, because access to space is becoming so much more affordable as we have more and more companies that are launching rockets. So as well known example of course is SpaceX Elon Musk Company and they're on track to launch like well over one hundred rockets this year. And because companies are now offering a lot
more rides to space, space is becoming less expensive. Also, satellites have become much smaller, and so a lot more countries see opportunities for themselves to actually have their own satellites in space. And so there are many African countries that have already started doing that, but there are a lot of other African countries that haven't gotten there yet. So in the years ahead, there will be a lot more countries in Africa that want to establish a presence
for themselves in orbit. And there will be a lot of companies in the United States and Europe, in Asia, all around the world that want to help African countries do.
Those sounds like I could get very crowded, but still very interesting to follow. Bruce and Lonie, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
I really appreciate your insights.
And you can read all the latest coverage of space on Bloomberg News. Plus you can sign up for Bruce's Business of Space newsletter. So similar to what we are seeing on Earth, African nations clearly have an opportunity to play a role in industries traditionally dominated by global powers, But ultimately what guides their participation in this new space race may be less about the actual race into orbit and more about their needs on the ground. This program
was produced by Adrian Bradley. Don't forget to follow and review the show wherever you usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer's Abasaja. Thanks as always for listening.