Space
Nigeria
Space agency/agencies
National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA; established in 1999); Defense Space Administration (DSA; established in 2014) (2025)
Space program overview
operates a national space initiative concentrating on the acquisition of satellites for uses in agriculture and environmental monitoring, meteorology, mining, disaster management, security, and socio-economic advancement; engages in the design, construction (primarily with international aid), and operation of satellites; processes aerial imagery data for analysis and dissemination; is enhancing capabilities in satellite and satellite payload production, particularly in remote sensing technologies; maintains a sounding rocket initiative aimed at researching rockets and propulsion systems, intending to launch domestically manufactured satellites from a Nigerian spaceport by 2030; collaborates with various international space agencies and industries, including those from Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Ghana, India, Japan, Kenya, Mongolia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the US, and Vietnam; possesses a government-operated satellite company and a modest commercial aerospace industry (2025)
Key space-program milestones
2003 - the first remote sensing (RS) microsatellite (NigeriaSat-1) was developed in collaboration with the UK and launched by Russia
2007 - the first communications satellite (NigSatCom-1) was constructed and launched by China (which failed in orbit in 2008)
2011 - the inaugural domestically produced remote sensing (RS) satellite (NigeriaSat-X) was launched by Russia
2019 - a geospatial data analysis center was inaugurated
2022 - the US-led Artemis Accords for space exploration were signed
2023 - the first military reconnaissance RS satellite (DelSat-1) was launched by China