Talk:History of space in Africa

Ambiguity in language descriptive of African space capabilities

African blacks have never launched anything into Earth orbit, nor even into space (above the Karmen line). The only launches to space from African soil were done by the French, in Algeria, and by the Italians, in Kenya, during the 20th century, from land leased from the respective African governments. The native peoples of those countries did not carry out the launches themselves.

Furthermore, none of the Earth-orbiting satellites for which African countries have legal ownership were launched into orbit by any group of native black Africans, whether governmental or NGO. All of the launches were contracted to governments or to private corporations in the United States, or to Roscosmos in Russia, or to the Chinese military. In one instance, GhanaSat-1, Japanese personnel aboard the ISS placed an African satellite into orbit, after that satellite had been ferried up to the ISS by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Yet both the African and international press and television networks use ambiguous language that might lead people into the false belief that some of the black nations of Africa have native space launch capabilities. They do not. There have been hoaxes of such, including a fake "space probe" named Cadimella claimed by a Ugandan "space research scientist" named Chris Nsamba, to orbit the Earth (twice), sample space dust, look for near-Earth asteroids, and, if attacked, defend itself with "anti-time missiles," whatever those are. 184.15.194.37 (talk) 16:39, 30 July 2023 (UTC)