A Chinese Long March 4B rocket hoisted the first Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS-1) aloft from the Taiyuan space base in northern China. 'We can say that 2019 is pretty much the best year in the history of the African space industry,' Oniosun said. The launch makes Ethiopia the eleventh African country to have a satellite into space. The country's space programme was originally championed by private individuals, who formed the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS) in 2004. Paulos Alemayehu, a longtime member of the group, said many were at first sceptical of the organisation's ambitions to develop an Ethiopian satellite.

Source: Daily Mail December 20, 2019 13:22 UTC