Africa Considers a Continent-Wide Space Agency

August 23, 2010 at 9:42 am | Posted in Space Law Current Events | Leave a comment

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Africa is a step closer to setting up its own space agency, with the approval of a planned feasibility study by the 53 member states of the African Union earlier this month. The African Space Agency, as it would be known, would be intended to help ensure the continent becomes an important player in the global space programme. The agreement was made at the close of the third African Union Conference for Ministers in charge of Communications and Information Technologies meeting in Abuja last week (6 August).

Ministers said that the feasibility study would also draft a common space policy for the continent, taking into account various existing space technology initiatives. They added that the continent-wide policy would be developed in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa…more