Zimbabwe and Uganda recently launched their first homegrown satellites – a "milestone" for the efforts in space activities for the countries.
Zimbabwe's ZimSat-1 and Uganda's PearlAfricaSat-1 are part of the BIRDS-5 constellation, which is now on its way to the International Space Station, according to the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).
The satellites, launched into space Monday, are scheduled to be released from the Japanese Kibo module on November 21 this year, UN-SPIDER added.
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Once in orbit, the two satellites will collect images to help Zimbabwe and Uganda with mineral exploration, monitoring of environmental hazards and droughts, human settlement and disease outbreak mapping, and other potential fields of applications.
A project run by Japan's Graduate School of Engineering at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, BIRDS-5 is a constellation of CubeSats.