On 20 Years of Space Exploration in Nigeria

20 years have passed since Nigeria opened its first space-related institution. Today, Nigerian space institutions strive to meet the objectives set out in a 28-year roadmap amid widespread scepticism and constrained funding.

Written by Omotayo Oyewole

Jul 26, 2019

The Nigerian-built satellite, NigeriaSat-X's first satellite image, taken just three days after the successful launch on 17th August, 2011, revealing buildings and the landscape surrounding the city of Auckland, New Zealand. SSTL

A cluster of satellite dishes sits in Misau Street, Garki at the heart of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. This ‘bank of satellites’, according to Tade Ipadeola, forms a part of Nigeria’s Earth station, which connects the five Nigerian satellites currently orbiting the Earth in outer space. Indeed, countries, as Ipadeola notes, do not typically locate such structures in a central business district, choosing instead to establish them in city outskirts. But these countries are not Nigeria. The choice of Abuja is quite obvious. Nigerians are loud, proud, show-offs, even with our under-developed utopian structures, which is what the National Space Research Development Agency is: a dilapidating utopian project.

The National Space Research Development Agency, NASRDA, like most public institutions in Nigeria, is a vast, airy collection of buildings. The buildings are an amalgamation of unattractive yellow, blue, grey and brown shades; a festival, in short, of disappointing colours. The only structure at the agency that embodies a burgeoning space-related future is the Space Incubation Centre, a dome-like building at the agency’s centre. Unveiled earlier this year in April, the Space Incubation Centre looks quite similar to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresege Auditorium designed by Finnish-American Architect, Eero Saarinen.

As Nigeria struggles to develop its space programme, the United States is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the US moon landing, an event that represented a major victory for America in its space race against its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union. And yet it seems that while America’s celebrations coincide with gradual cut backs on US space programs, and despite both local and international scepticism, Nigeria still nurtures considerable ambition about embarking on more space-related endeavours.

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About the Author

Omotayo Oyewole

is candidate at the Nigerian Law School, interested in space law and international economics.

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On 20 Years of Space Exploration in Nigeria