Africa Needs Own Space Agency: Sudan's Bashir

AsiaOne ^ | Wednesday, Sep 05, 2012

[nickcarraway]

Africa needs its own space research agency, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told a regional conference of communications ministers who met on Wednesday as the continent's IT sector grows.

"I'm calling for the biggest project, an African space agency," Mr Bashir said in remarks opening the two-day conference. "Africa must have its space agency."

Known as AfriSpace, it would enable "cooperation among African states in space research and technology and their space applications," crucial to the continent's development, says a working document issued for the African Union conference.

When they last met in Nigeria two years ago, ministers asked the African Union Commission to conduct a feasibility study for AfriSpace. At the Khartoum talks they are expected to ask for AU implementation of the study, which aims to provide a "roadmap for the creation of the African Space Agency."

[VanDeKoik]

Africans have never even mastered transoceanic voyages.

[EEGator]

[ArrogantBustard]

12th centuryEurope was civilized. 21st century Africa is barbaric and savage.

[Fiji Hill]

Back in the mid-1960's, Zambia had a space program. They planned to launch a rocket to the moon from Lusaka and boasted that they would get there before the Americans and the Russians. A video of Zambian astronauts training is available here.

[bimboeruption]

You owe me a new keyboard.

[hal ogen]

OK... minus tenth century then...

[Hardraade]

Oh, Obama already gave NASA to the Arabs, so what the heck.

Maybe they can all fly into the Sun.

[353FMG]

The honkies will pay for it.

[newnhdad]

Maybe building a shitter or looking to the Ancient Romans for advice on building roads and maybe some running water and crop rotation.. maybe crops and food might be even a better place to start.. then maybe in a few thousand years you can graduate to things like a space program..

[Boogieman]

Well, maybe they can hire some of the veterans of the Old Negro Space Program to advice them on getting this up and running.

[eartrumpet]

The agency will need a good plane for the astronaut trainees to stay in top form with. They should go with a Kenyan built plane with the newest features.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/26/kenyan-man-builds-airplane-in-yard-based-mostly-on-wikipedia-entries/

[Chode]

they still wipe their butts with their bare hand... toilet paper and flush toilets might be of more use

[Popman]

Africa needs it's own space agency so it can launch it's own secure satellite communication system... They don't want us infidels listening in on their jihadist plans.... Ever cell phone goes though a foreign communication system ...