CIDCA and South-South Cooperation Fund provide $6 million grant for 70kg Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS-1) Project

In October 2016, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI).

Following the establishment of ESSTI, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers announced the nation’s ambition to launch an earth observatory satellite into orbit in 3-5-years to improve its weather-monitoring capabilities.

In October 2016, the Ethiopian Government and the Chinese Government also signed a cooperation (grant) agreement for the 70kg Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS-1) Project.

Under the terms of the agreement, CIDCA and South-South Cooperation Fund reportedly agreed to provide $6 million of grant funding in order to design, construct and launch a wide-range multispectral remote-sensing microsatellite into space (captured via Record ID#70999).

The project also involved the construction of ground station facilities, which are located at the Entoto Space Observatory near Addis Ababa.

The Chinese Government provided $6 million of grant funding for the satellite and the training of Ethiopian engineers, while the Ethiopian Government provided $2 million of counterpart funding for the construction of the ground station facilities.

The ultimate purpose of ETRSS-1 is to provide data to the Ethiopian authorities and research institutions to monitor the environment and study weather patterns for better agricultural planning, early warning for drought, mining activities and forestry management.

Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite Co., Ltd. of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group (Chinese name: 航天科技集团五院航天东方红卫星有限公司) was responsible for the construction of the satellite. China Academy of Space Technology won the contract for the in-orbit delivery of the satellite.

Project implementation was originally scheduled to commence in June 2019.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the China Academy of Space Technology to inspect the ETRSS-1 satellite in April 2019.

Then, on December 20, 2019, Ethiopia's first-ever satellite, ETRSS-1, was launched into space by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan within North China's Shanxi Province. It was sent into space by a Long March-4B carrier rocket. Then, on December 2, 2020, ETRSS-1 was officially handed over to the Ethiopian Government.

Twenty Ethiopian aerospace engineers and sixty masters and PhD students were involved in the project. According to Dr.

Solomon Belay Tessema, the Director General of ESSTI at Addis Ababa University, the goal of the collaboration and knowledge transfer was to enable Ethiopian engineers to ‘design, build and launch the second satellite independently.’ On August 23, 2019, Beijing Smart Satellite Space Technology and ESSTI signed an agreement to co-develop a second satellite known as ET-SMART-RSS.

The signing ceremony was held in Beijing Sun Valley Industrial Park, China. Beijing Smart Satellite Space Technology agreed to cover the cost of the $1.5 million project.

The ET-SMART-RSS earth observation nanosatellite was expected to take off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, in Wenchang, Hainan Province.