The Federal Government has announced plans to send the country’s first citizen to space. The Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Mathew Adepoju, made the announcement at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday. Adepoju disclosed that the Federal Government has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in collaboration with NASRDA and the Space Exploration and Research Agency. Nigeria has been actively pursuing space exploration since 1999, when it established NASRDA, and has since launched several satellites into orbit, the most recent being the NigeriaSat-X in 2011. An equivalent satellite, NigeriaSat-X, was co-launched with NigeriaSat-2 at the Yasny military base in Russia.

Source: The Guardian June 20, 2024 11:12 UTC