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Taifa-1The Taifa-1 satellite also capitalized as TAIFA-1 satellite, is a Kenyan earth observation 3U CubeSat, and was launched on 14 April 2023 into space together in a joint collaboration with Exolaunch aboard a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.[1] It is the first satellite launched by Kenya Space Agency that was purely developed by Kenyan engineers with an intensive training provided by EnduroSat.[2][3] Although the satellite was developed and designed by Kenyan engineers, the manufacturing was solely done by EnduroSat.[4] It was dubbed as the first Kenyan 3U software-defined NanoSat. The satellite was launched with the weight of expectations surrounding around the need of elevating the space economy of Kenya to global standards.[5] It took approximately a span of two years to prepare the satellite and about 50 million Kenyan shilling was spent for the project while the satellite was given insurance by Marsh Limited.[4] BackgroundSayariLabs and EnduroSat reportedly signed a commercial agreement to launch the TAIFA-1 satellite.[6] DevelopmentLaunch and purposeTAIFA-1 became the first operational satellite to be launched by Kenya.[7] The satellite took off from California, USA, according to images from the US space company as it reached orbit on 14 April 2023.[8] The Kenyan Ministry of Defence and the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) together in a joint statement indicated the moment as "an important milestone" that should be able to boost Kenya's "budding space economy".[9] The satellite was supposed to be part of Kenya's ambitious efforts to boost and foster space economy.[10] LegacyThe word "taifa" is derived from the Swahili-language and it implies a meaning of "one nation".[11] References
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