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Nigeria runs the risk of being totally frozen out of the satellite communications, unless it hurries to launch more spacecraft and secure precious orbital lanes.
The Director General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Professor S.O. Mohammed handed out that advice to the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.
Mohammed informed the committee during a closed-door briefing, that when it comes to satellite communications, spoils go to the swift and the strong.
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“Orbital lanes for communications satellites are exhaustible,” he warned. “There are just so many slots available—and they are being gobbled up rapidly.”
He said Nigeria should “struggle to launch more satellites while we still have a fighting chance of securing geostationary orbits,” noting that unlike remote sensing spacecraft, which travel faster than the planet rotates, satellites deployed for communications purposes revolve at the same speed the Earth spins on its axis.
“Because of this, a communications satellite tends to hoover—and can therefore cover a particular geographical area, more or less continually”.
