Taifa-1: Inside Kenya's First Satellite Costing Ksh50 Million

Taifa-1 Sat, Kenya’s first operational 3U Earth Observation satellite, which is set to be launched into space on Tuesday, April 11, was built at the cost of Ksh50 million.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, April 4, Defence Principal Secretary (PS) Patrick Mariru stated that its development was done by local engineers from the Kenya Space Agency (KSA).

According to him, the development was done locally through the expertise of KSA engineers with its parts sourced externally, factors that attributed to the satellite's cost-effectiveness.

Defence Principal Secretary, Patrick Mariru, appearing before the National Assembly Defence, intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee on November 15, 2022. /CAPITAL GROUP

"The development of this outfit and its launch is very modest. We didn't get engineers from outside Kenya. It's only the parts that we sourced from external partners but in terms of fixing it was done by our engineers.

"The cost has been modest. To develop this vessel it has cost Kenya Ksh50 million," he said.

The manufacturing of the parts and their testing was done in collaboration with Endurosat AD, a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer.

With the vast foreseen advantage the satellite will hand to Kenya, PS Mariru noted that the nation will be able to independently access data for decision support to combating climate change and improving agriculture and food security.

"We are shifting and we are focusing on helping our government make decisions based on data for example on afforestation or climate change. We now have our own vessel to collect data.

"We do not need to go to a third party. Now we have our sovereign-owned instruments to be able to make decisions," Mariru added.

It is also the first stepping stone to the development of what is planned to be a constellation of small earth observation satellites for Kenya.

The mission is designed to provide precise and timely earth observation satellite data to stakeholders in the diverse fields of application including agriculture and food security as well as to "develop Kenya's technical capacity on the whole value chain of space technology development and applications." 

A delegation from Kenya will travel to the USA for the launch led by PS Mariru to witness the launch, "weather and other conditions permitting."

A joint statement by KSA and the Ministry of Defence on Monday, April 3 termed the launch as a culmination of a KSA mission design and development of the satellite spanning 24 months.

"The project entailed research and development of the different components of satellite mission design, full satellite development cycle, in-orbit control, and data reception and processing. The team spent three months planning and determining the specific objectives, technical requirements, design specifications, cost analysis and documentation regimen for Taifa-1," read the statement in part.

Data from the 3U earth observation satellite will complement what is currently available from an open source within the sector. It will provide decision-support to stakeholders relying on space-derived data-driven solutions and contribute to realising the Sustainable Development Goals.

Taifa-1 Sat is the first stepping stone to the development of what is planned to be a constellation of small earth observation satellites for Kenya.

It is also a capacity-building effort for Kenya’s engineers in space systems engineering, space operations, ground receiver station operations, mission control, and satellite data acquisition and processing, among others.

The launch of the satellite will be done through the Falcon 9 Rocket, a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. SpaceX is under the ownership of billionaire Elon Musk.