Russia and Mali to cooperate on satellite technology

Russian state space corporation Glavkosmos hosted a meeting with Malian officials on Tuesday, discussing satellite launch services and technology sharing. 

The delegation from Mali, led by Economy Minister Alousseni Sanou, met executives from Glavkosmos, which promotes the country’s space industry on the global market, at the group's Moscow HQ. 

Ilya Tarasenko, CEO of Glavkosmos – a subsidiary of state corporation Roscosmos – said the talks addressed the development of national space projects in Mali and training, among other issues. Representatives of Mali’s trade, transport and infrastructure ministries were also at the meeting.

As of 2022 at least 13 African nations, including Ethiopia, Angola, South Africa and Sudan had manufactured 48 satellites, according to Space in Africa, a Nigeria-based space industry monitoring firm. Space programs are currently running in more than 20 African countries. 

Egypt became the first African state to send a satellite into space in 1998. Kenya put its first experimental mini-satellites into orbit from the International Space Station in 2018, and in April this year, launched its first operational Earth observation satellite, named Taifa-1.