Botswana launches first satellite BOTSAT-1 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9

Post by lupusreal » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC

mainecoder wrote: post #3

echoangle wrote: post #2

Don’t want to belittle the achievement but they launched it as in „had it launched by the commercial launch provider SpaceX“, not on a self-developed rocket as it sounds like on the first read.

Of course, even Europe cannot launch cheaply anymore. Arianespace is crawling to space; they are left for dead. The only serious players are the US and China. It's reached a point where it has become like trying to manufacture a state-of-the-art 5nm chip in a developing nation: possible, but at an absurd cost. You might achieve an initial parametric yield of only 10%, meaning only a tiny fraction of the chips coming…

Post by dyauspitr » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 4:58 PM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #124

dyauspitr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politically stable, relatively low corruption and economical acceptable. They are doing many things well relative to the rest of Africa. On the other hand, 30% of their women have HIV.

With the current generation of HIV drugs, most of those women should live into their 60s (at least). Also, the latest generation can get HIV virus counts to below testable densities. I expect their HIV issues to be resolved over the next 30-50 years, where the number of new cases will fall dramatically, and almost no one will die from AIDS-related causes.

Post by dingnuts » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 5:34 PM UTC

mosburger wrote: post #190

mrtksn wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry too much about negative opinions, there is usually a strong bias against non-US projects in the English speaking web. A common trick is to have an office in USA and make it hard to figure out where's your project actually based. There's usually some sympathy for the British and Israeli, then you get some envy for the Russian and Japanese based stuff if they are doing something authentic or feeds into the…

Until very recently I worked for an international remittances company. It's remarkable how far behind the U.S. is, and I always tell people the first countries to go (mostly) cashless with mobile wallets are in East Africa... e.g. Kenya had a ton of people using MPesa long before many European/North American/Asian countries had anything analogous.

Post by xnx » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

scrappyjoe wrote: post #104

So many strong opinions here from commenters who aren’t actually from Botswana. Let me tell you how we actually feel about it here. We think it’s awesome! The establishment of a university of science and technology in Botswana has been a long hard road, and many mistakes have been made along the way. But the fact that Botswana now has the local skill to deploy a satellite and make use of the data it provides to infor…

Post by hkpack » Thu, Mar 27, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #186

sokols wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations on the successful launch! > .. I’d listen to the Voice of America.. I grew up listening to VoA as a kid as well, I was born in a then not so developed part of the Balkans. Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours.

As an American, I literally have no idea what Voice of America is.