Africa’s space ambitions are moving from policy to practice

As the Africa Space Expo closes in Abidjan, African innovators are showing what the continent can build.

Members of the Galaxy Aerospace Ghana team at the Africa Space Expo in Abidjan, Ivory Coast [Handout/GSSTI/Galaxy Aerospace Ghana]

Accra, Ghana – The Africa Space Expo (ASPEX), which closed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, last week, was not designed as a showcase for rockets and astronauts. Organisers presented it instead as a marketplace for space applications in food security, climate resilience, territorial monitoring, connectivity and maritime security, bringing start-ups, project labs and investors together to move ideas from demonstration to deployment.

The event also produced several concrete agreements. The Ivory Coast signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the 75th signatory of the agreement on space exploration and development, while Angola signed a letter of intent on space cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

But beyond the agreements, the expo highlighted a question that is becoming harder to avoid: Can Africa move from using space technology to building more of it itself?

Ghana offers a clear illustration of both the progress and the gap.

Ghana’s ambitions in space and nuclear science date back to its early years of independence. In 1961, President Kwame Nkrumah’s government initiated a nuclear reactor project in Accra. Two years later, the government established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission through an act of Parliament with a mandate covering the peaceful applications of nuclear energy.

The reactor project was shelved after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, but the institution he helped establish remains the parent body of the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI).

Joseph Tandoh, director of the GSSTI, traces Ghana’s more recent space programme to a partnership with South Africa.

“Ghana became a partner through South Africa,” he told Al Jazeera. “Through that project, we were able to reconstruct the old satellite antenna at Kuntunse into a radio telescope.”

Through its partnership with South Africa on radio astronomy, Ghana converted a redundant 32-metre (105ft) antenna at Kuntunse into a functioning radio telescope. Ghana became the first of South Africa’s eight African Square Kilometre Array partner countries to complete the conversion, and the telescope was launched in August 2017.

Ghana’s National Space Policy was approved by the cabinet in 2022 and launched in 2024. The government approved the establishment of a Ghana Space Agency in 2025, beginning the process of creating a dedicated national institution for the sector.

The institutional framework is taking shape. The harder question is how Ghana moves from using space technology to developing and building more of it itself.

What Ghana is already doing

At the GSSTI, that transition is already under way.

Tandoh told Al Jazeera GEOMAIZE, a partnership between the GSSTI and VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium, has demonstrated how satellite data can be applied to Ghanaian agriculture.

The project monitored crop health and developed algorithms to classify crops. Ghana is also expanding its use of Earth observation data and artificial intelligence for crop monitoring and yield prediction.

A crop health monitoring app developed by Galaxy Aerospace Ghana to support food security [Handout/GSSTI/Galaxy Aerospace Ghana]

But predicting yields has proved more difficult. Tandoh said the model’s accuracy fell short of expectations, largely because many Ghanaian farmers practise smallholder mixed cropping and satellite soil-moisture data are too coarse to capture differences between small farms.

A follow-up project supported by the French embassy and international research partners, is now working to improve the estimates.

The GSSTI has also used satellite data to track forest loss linked to mining and is working with partners in Nigeria on a digital twin to simulate coastal erosion at Keta and Agavedzi. Japanese cooperation has provided technical training while the French government supported work on space legislation that produced a draft now being reviewed by the attorney general.

“We always say that Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute becoming an agency is to position Ghana in a way that we will not only be users of the technology but we will also contribute to designing, developing and building our own tools,” Tandoh said.

Victor Tagborloh founded Galaxy Aerospace Ghana in 2020. Two years later, his team launched a high-altitude balloon into near space, capturing images of Ghana’s geography with clearance from national security and airport authorities.

The company has since designed mini-rockets for the GSSTI, trained young people in space robotics and artificial intelligence and pushed for the introduction of Starlink in Ghana in 2024.

But Tagborloh said the company has yet to secure an investor, six years after it was founded.

Galaxy’s longer-term plans include a space university on 33,000 hectares (82,000 acres) that it has secured at Apam in Ghana’s Central Region as well as a ground station that would give the country greater capacity to monitor floods, mining activity and coastal erosion.

The company is seeking investors for the ground station and a geospatial intelligence platform. Tagborloh said the curriculum is ready and the land is available. What is missing is the capital to turn those plans into infrastructure.

He also argued that Ghana’s position near the equator could provide an advantage for launching spacecraft, potentially reducing the fuel required to reach orbit. Several other African countries share similar geography.

But Tagborloh’s ambition goes beyond launching rockets. He wants Ghana to develop more of the infrastructure and expertise needed to build its own space capabilities.

Who is building the industry?

Bright Atsu Sogbey, president of the Africa Development Council and a senior research engineer at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, argued that the private sector cannot build the industry alone.

“Borrowed technology cannot be sustainable,” Sogbey told Al Jazeera. “The state must be in the driver’s seat, using the natural resources we have to ensure that, in partnership with the private sector, we can have laboratories and manufacturing hubs for the space industry.”

He pointed to South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria, which have established space laboratories and manufactured test satellites. Ghana, he said, still lacks the state-backed laboratories and manufacturing hubs needed to produce more of its own components rather than importing them.

Ghana’s radio telescope is used for research and training [Handout/GSSTI]

“Enough of the talk shop,” Sogbey said. “The next expo should see African satellites assembled on this continent and launching capability for African satellites.”

Engineer Daniel Aboagye, CEO of African Progressive Research and Innovations, said the change must also begin in education.

“With how technology is advancing, Africa must introduce space science into its education systems,” Aboagye told Al Jazeera. “We cannot continue to be consumers of technology we do not understand.”

Kwadwo Dwomo II, CEO of COMCENT Ghana, works on agritech systems that depend on satellite data. He also called for greater government investment in the sector.

Ghana is home to a small cluster of companies, including Galaxy Aerospace, Xavier Space Solutions and Ayeji Aerospace, working in areas such as satellite technology, Earth observation and geospatial services.

Galaxy Aerospace confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was unable to participate in this year’s expo. The company said it hopes to participate in the next expo.

A continental project

The challenge facing Ghana is shared across much of Africa: moving from using space technology to developing and building more of it locally while overcoming limited investment, infrastructure and manufacturing capacity.

ASPEX was designed in part to address that gap.

The African Space Agency, headquartered in Egypt, is intended to provide a continental framework for cooperation while the expo aims to connect investors with African start-ups, researchers and space projects.

But the distance between the ambitions presented at the expo and the resources available to engineers trying to turn them into businesses remains substantial.

For Tandoh, Ghana’s immediate priority is to build the application layer: a satellite-data processing hub capable of serving ministries across government before the country moves further into designing and launching its own satellites.

“Space cuts across all the ministries,” he told Al Jazeera. “We should be able to build and validate our own tools first.”

For Tagborloh, the timeline is more urgent.

“We shouldn’t wait for tomorrow,” he told Al Jazeera. “Whatever decision we have to take, especially for human resource capital in the space industry, it has to be now.”

Ghana has the policy. It has engineers, research institutions and companies trying to build a space industry. What it does not yet have is the capital and manufacturing capacity to turn those capabilities into a domestic industry.

“We have the team, the knowledge, the research and the technical know-how,” Tagborloh told Al Jazeera. “We just need funds.”

随着非洲太空博览会在阿比让闭幕，非洲创新者们正在展示非洲大陆的建设能力。

Galaxy Aerospace Ghana团队成员在科特迪瓦阿比让举行的非洲航天博览会上 [图片由GSSTI/Galaxy Aerospace Ghana提供]

加纳阿克拉——上周在科特迪瓦阿比让闭幕的非洲太空博览会（ASPEX）并非旨在展示火箭和宇航员。主办方将其定位为一个太空应用市场，涵盖粮食安全、气候适应能力、领土监测、互联互通和海上安全等领域，旨在汇聚初创企业、项目实验室和投资者，推动创意从演示阶段走向实际应用。

此次活动还达成了多项具体协议。科特迪瓦签署了《阿尔忒弥斯协定》，成为该太空探索与发展协定的第75个签署国；安哥拉则与阿拉伯联合酋长国签署了太空合作意向书。

但除了这些协议之外，博览会还凸显了一个越来越难以回避的问题：非洲能否从使用太空技术转向自己建造更多太空技术？

加纳的情况清楚地表明了进步与差距。

加纳在太空和核科学领域的雄心壮志可以追溯到独立初期。1961年，克瓦米·恩克鲁玛总统领导的政府在阿克拉启动了一个核反应堆项目。两年后，政府通过议会法案成立了加纳原子能委员会，其职责涵盖核能的和平利用。

1966 年恩克鲁玛被推翻后，反应堆项目被搁置，但他帮助建立的机构仍然是加纳空间科学与技术研究所 (GSSTI) 的母体机构。

加纳航天科技研究所 (GSSTI) 所长 Joseph Tandoh 将加纳近期的太空计划追溯到与南非的合作。

“加纳是通过南非成为合作伙伴的，”他告诉半岛电视台。“通过那个项目，我们得以将昆图恩塞的旧卫星天线改建成射电望远镜。”

加纳通过与南非在射电天文学领域的合作，将昆图恩塞一座废弃的32米（105英尺）天线改造成了一台可用的射电望远镜。加纳成为南非八个非洲平方公里阵列射电望远镜伙伴国中第一个完成改造的国家，该望远镜于2017年8月正式启用。

加纳国家航天政策于 2022 年获得内阁批准，并于 2024 年启动。政府于 2025 年批准成立加纳航天局，开始为该领域创建一个专门的国家机构。

制度框架正在逐步形成。更棘手的问题在于，加纳如何从利用太空技术过渡到自主研发和建设更多此类技术。

加纳目前正在做的事情

在GSSTI，这种转变已经开始了。

Tandoh 告诉半岛电视台，GSSTI 与比利时弗拉​​芒技术研究所 (VITO) 合作的 GEOMAIZE 项目已经展示了如何将卫星数据应用于加纳农业。

该项目监测作物健康状况并开发了作物分类算法。加纳还在扩大地球观测数据和人工智能在作物监测和产量预测方面的应用。

Galaxy Aerospace Ghana 开发的作物健康监测应用程序，旨在支持粮食安全 [资料提供/GSSTI/Galaxy Aerospace Ghana]

但预测产量却更加困难。坦多表示，该模型的准确性未达到预期，主要原因是许多加纳农民实行小农混合种植，而卫星土壤湿度数据过于粗糙，无法捕捉到小农户之间的差异。

目前，由法国大使馆和国际研究伙伴支持的后续项目正在努力改进这些估算。

GSSTI还利用卫星数据追踪与采矿相关的森林损失，并正与尼日利亚的合作伙伴共同开发数字孪生模型，以模拟凯塔和阿加韦齐的海岸侵蚀情况。日本方面提供了技术培训，而法国政府则支持了空间立法方面的工作，目前该立法草案正在接受总检察长的审查。

坦多赫说：“我们一直说，加纳空间科学与技术研究所成为一个机构，是为了让加纳不仅成为技术的使用者，而且还能为设计、开发和建造我们自己的工具做出贡献。”

Victor Tagborloh 于 2020 年创立了 Galaxy Aerospace Ghana 公司。两年后，他的团队发射了一个高空气球进入近太空，在获得国家安全和机场当局的许可后，拍摄了加纳的地理图像。

此后，该公司为加纳航天科技创新中心 (GSSTI) 设计了小型火箭，培训了年轻人太空机器人和人工智能技术，并推动在 2024 年在加纳引入星链服务。

但塔格博洛表示，该公司成立六年以来，仍未找到投资者。

Galaxy 的长期计划包括在加纳中部地区的阿帕姆（Apam）建立一所占地 33,000 公顷（82,000 英亩）的太空大学，​​以及一个地面站，这将使该国更有能力监测洪水、采矿活动和海岸侵蚀。

该公司正在为地面站和地理空间智能平台寻找投资者。塔格博洛表示，课程已经准备就绪，土地也已到位。目前缺少的是将这些计划转化为基础设施所需的资金。

他还指出，加纳地处赤道附近，这可能有利于航天器发射，从而减少进入轨道所需的燃料。其他几个非洲国家也拥有类似的地理特征。

但塔格博洛的雄心壮志远不止于发射火箭。他希望加纳能够发展更多基础设施和专业技术，从而建立自己的航天能力。

谁在打造这个行业？

非洲发展理事会主席、加纳原子能委员会高级研究工程师布莱特·阿苏·索格贝认为，私营部门无法独自建立这个行业。

索格贝告诉半岛电视台：“引进技术是不可持续的。国家必须掌握主动权，利用我们拥有的自然资源，与私营部门合作，确保我们能够拥有航天工业所需的实验室和制造中心。”

他指出，南非、埃及和尼日利亚已经建立了空间实验室并制造了测试卫星。他说，加纳仍然缺乏国家支持的实验室和制造中心，因此无法生产更多自主零部件，而是依赖进口。

加纳的射电望远镜用于科研和培训。[资料来源/GSSTI]

索格贝说：“别再空谈了。下一届博览会应该展现出非洲卫星在非洲大陆的组装以及非洲卫星的发射能力。”

非洲进步研究与创新公司首席执行官丹尼尔·阿博阿吉工程师表示，变革也必须从教育开始。

阿博阿吉告诉半岛电视台：“随着科技的进步，非洲必须将空间科学纳入其教育体系。我们不能继续做我们不了解的技术的消费者。”

COMCENT Ghana首席执行官Kwadwo Dwomo II致力于研发依赖卫星数据的农业科技系统。他还呼吁政府加大对该领域的投资。

加纳拥有一小群公司，包括 Galaxy Aerospace、Xavier Space Solutions 和 Ayeji Aerospace，这些公司从事卫星技术、地球观测和地理空间服务等领域的工作。

Galaxy Aerospace公司向半岛电视台证实，该公司无法参加今年的展会。该公司表示，希望能够参加下一届展会。

一个大陆项目

加纳面临的挑战与非洲大部分地区面临的挑战相同：在克服投资、基础设施和制造能力有限的情况下，从使用太空技术转向在本地开发和制造更多此类技术。

ASPEX 的设计初衷之一就是为了弥补这一差距。

总部位于埃及的非洲航天局旨在为非洲大陆的合作提供框架，而此次博览会旨在将投资者与非洲的初创企业、研究人员和航天项目联系起来。

但博览会上提出的雄心壮志与工程师们试图将其转化为商业模式所拥有的资源之间仍然存在着巨大的差距。

对于坦多来说，加纳眼下的首要任务是构建应用层：一个卫星数据处理中心，能够在加纳进一步设计和发射自己的卫星之前，为政府各部门提供服务。

“航天问题涉及所有部门，”他告诉半岛电视台。“我们应该首先能够开发并验证我们自己的工具。”

对于塔格博洛来说，时间更加紧迫。

“我们不应该等到明天，”他告诉半岛电视台。“无论我们必须做出什么决定，尤其是在航天工业的人力资源方面，都必须现在就做出决定。”

加纳拥有相关政策，也拥有工程师、研究机构和企业，致力于发展航天产业。但它目前缺乏的是将这些能力转化为本土产业所需的资金和制造能力。

“我们有团队、有知识、有研究成果、有技术诀窍，”塔格博洛告诉半岛电视台，“我们只是需要资金。”