NigeriaSat-2 to Launch Soon

According to the report, Nigeria has signed an imagery sales agreement with DMC International Imaging Ltd., UK, to promote the business viability of the NigeriaSat-2, ahead of its launch this quarter, together with NigeriaSat-X. Already, a verdict came from the international community that images from the second Nigeria earth observation satellite, NigeriaSat -2, would be of high quality, compared with those of other satellites.

Director-General of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Seidu Mohammed, said that the agreement would assist DMCII to canvass for international customers and signing necessary sales contracts prior to launch of the satellites. He explained, “The NigeriaSat-2 sensor will provide imagery of 3 resolutions, that is, 2.5 m panchromatic, 5m multispectral (R, G, B, NIR) and also carries the 32m multi-spectral payloads of Nigeria Sat-1, and more importantly NigeriaSat-2 can image in stereo mode, while the NigeriaSat-X sensor will provide 22m multi-spectral (RGB, NIR) imagery.

“For Nigeria, the intended usage of imageries from NigeriaSat-2 and Nigeria Sat-X is for broad area coverage inclusive of land use, geospatial analysis and environmental change monitoring. It will also be used for mapping, accurate geo-location and resale. NigeriaSat-2 is expected to provide a maximum of 250 images per day, while imagery volume from NigeriaSat-X has been established to be a handful of images per day, sharing many of the same storage and processing capabilities from the NigeriaSat-2 system.”

“In order to better prepare NASRDA for the exploitation of imageries from the NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X satellites for the international market, NASRDA has received necessary approval from the Federal Ministry of Justice to sign an agreement with the DMCII, UK as the exclusive distributor for the sale of NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X outside Africa. Distribution of these imageries within Africa will be the responsibility of NASRDA’s company-GeoApps Plus Ltd,” He added.

On the planned launch of the satellite from Russia, he said, “It is important to note that 44 per cent of American spacecrafts to date were launched in Russia. Therefore, it is relatively safe and cost effective to launch from Russia.”