The Director-General of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Halilu Shaba, says Nigeria’s satellite, NigComsat-1R, is outdated but still functioning.
Shaba while speaking on satellite operations and national security during an interview on a Channels Television, he said Nigeria has only one satellite and that it does not have enough capacity to serve the country.
He said the satellite was installed in 2011 and should have been changed because it has a seven-year life span.
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“We have only one satellite (built-in 2011). It has a seven-year life span and the life span is supposed to have expired in 2018. In our culture of satellite industries, you build a new satellite that is supposed to have replaced that one before you; we have not done that,” Shaba said.
“We are living on grace because normally based on the fuel of the satellite, you imagine that it is going to last for seven years but since 2018, the satellite has been functional and it is still giving us the necessary data.”
