Mpoma earth satellite undergoes renovation

Mpoma earth satellite station is undergoing renovation, @NECUPDF tweet confirms. #News #WhisperEyeNews

The first launched earth satellite station in Mukono is under renovation by the Uganda People’s Defence forces engineering wing.

According to National Enterprise Corporation, the rehabilitation of Mpoma Earth Satellite Station by NEC through its Subsidiary; NEC Construction Works and Engineering Ltd in Mukono District is on course.

The National Enterprise Corporation is a commercial arm of the Ministry of Defense and Uganda People’s defense forces.

A screenshot on before and after the renovation

Mpoma Earth station is located in Mukono District. and was built by former president Gen Amin Dada.

The government last year resolved that Mpoma facility where Uganda already has two antennas will serve as the operations and communications center for satellites launched by the government and universities. The existing antennas are associated with Intelsat’s Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean satellites.

Ugandan engineers Edgar Mujuni (left), Bonny Omara (center) and Derrick Tebusweke helped launch the country’s first satellite.

“The site was chosen because it already had some infrastructure that the country has been using for international telecommunication satellites. This was decided on to minimize on [the] cost of developing new structure,” said Elioda Tumwesigye, then Uganda’s minister for Science, Technology, and Innovation.

Recently Uganda launched its first satellite amidst jubilations of the officials.

The satellite developed by Omara and his team, named PearlAfricaSat-1, was launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft, which lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. In addition, the rocket was also carrying ZimSat-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite.

Both satellites were developed through the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Project 5, BIRDS-5, in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan.