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Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space
- jaco8 7y agoReading this headline I remember my grandmother, who donated 10 bucks every month for years to this famine ravaged country via some church charity. She died poor living on minimum pension. Nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her.
- HorizonXP 7y agoAre you trying to say that this is some kind of waste of money? This is literally a weather satellite to help them plan for future events, which should have a direct impact on agriculture. In my mind, a country that can go from famine ravaged to space faring within a single generation should be tremendously lauded. And the fact that it's trying to do something to help prevent another famine is commendable too. (I realize that it's not black & white and there's likely a lot of corruption and other not-nice-things happening along the way.)
- skrebbel 7y agoDon't feed the troll
- jaco8 7y agoWhile I am being downvoted here happily , unfortunately I know it was a waste of money. On my extensive travels I met charitiy workers who were proud to discuss which of them agencies had the latest Toyota Landcruser , Range Rover , the best air condition in their flown-in prefabricated buildings etc. etc.,last time in Sri Lanka . While I agree with you that achievements should be lauded but the billions of donations by people who could least afford it need to be mentioned too. Several members of my extended family gave to charities mostly to African countries in the 70 and 80ties , the children of the recipients are now drowning in the Mediterranean Sea or visiting Europe for handouts.
- saschag 7y agothose 1st world morons and their ideas of progression means nothing if you cant even feed or house your family. losing karma for defending people who need actual help. for crying out loud.
- droithomme 7y agoFood aid dumps from the US to Africa are correlated to liquidation of crop surpluses and our government price supports. Evidence has built up that food dumps destabilize areas, undermine local food costs, drive local farmers out of business, and exacerbate suffering. https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Health/us-food-aid-contributing-africas-hunger/story?id=8939151 https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Health/us-food-aid-contributing-af... https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-idead-aidi-is-dead-wr_b_191193 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-idead-aidi-is-dead-wr_b_1... https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/americas/14iht-food.4.7116855.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/americas/14iht-food... As is pointed out in another comment, this weather satellite on the otherhand is going to tremendously help local farmers.
- DyslexicAtheist 7y agopoor lady. wonder if she deserves her grand kids criticizing her life choices with whataboutist arguments post mortem.
- mikestew 7y ago“I gave that money so children wouldn’t starve, not so that you could at some point in the future win some Internet argument.” Unfortunately, someone stands at the ready to turn the works of others to their own purposes. Make a very big note to yourself when the story teller has no participation in the otherwise compelling story. (“My grandfather didn’t fight Mussolini just so we could...”)
- dang 7y agoComments like this break the site guidelines badly. Please don't, regardless of how bad the comment you're replying to is, or you feel it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- macawfish 7y agoSadly, I came to the comments expecting some kind of othering and here it is right off the bat
- dang 7y agoPlease don't reply to a bad comment with another bad comment. That just makes the thread even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- wcoenen 7y ago> The Chinese satellite was designed and built at a cost of $8 million, with China paying around $6 million of the capsule’s price It is odd that the article mentions these details about the satellite cost, but then completely ignores the much larger cost of the launch itself, which should be on the order of $50M. edit: apparantly it was a rideshare with 9 satellites total. https://www.space.com/china-long-march-4b-rocket-launches-9-satellites.html https://www.space.com/china-long-march-4b-rocket-launches-9-...
- rory096 7y agoIt's a 70kg satellite. Would have to be a rideshare, not a primary payload.
- wiremine 7y agoEthiopia's GDP growth has been on a tear since 2000. [1] If you visit the capital, you can't miss the Chinese influence. Last time I was there, a huge Chinese bank building was going up kiddy corner to the Airport in Addis. BTW, if you haven't visited Ethiopia, put it on your list. It's an amazingly beautiful country. [1] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:ETH:TZA:UGA&hl=en&dl=en https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
- 3pt14159 7y agoThe GDP growth rate per capita is a better measure in my opinion. The population of Ethiopia is growing very fast and despite the high GDP growth rate there is still serious concern about the job market for the nation's under 18 population about to hit the labour market.
- FrojoS 7y agoIn this case, it’s about the capability to finance a satellite, so absolute GDP is more relevant.
- grecy 7y agoI just spent three years driving around Africa. I visited 35 different countries all around the continent. [1] The Chiense influence is staggering. I'm writing a book about it now. Many, many parts of Africa are developing faster than any of us can comprehend, because we've never seen it. In the last ~20 years cities like LA and Vancouver have gotten bigger, but they're more or less what they were - there were skyscrapers, electricity, water, freeways etc. Now it's just a bit bigger. There are hundreds of cities in Africa that have gone from dirt streets to modern city with skyscrapers, 4G internet, subways (or above ground rail), running water end electricity, etc. in just 10 years. It boggles the mind [1] http://theroadchoseme.com/africa-expedition-overview http://theroadchoseme.com/africa-expedition-overview & http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme
- dustingetz 7y ago
- LatteLazy 7y agoI mean no disrespect to Ethiopia but no, China launched it. This is important because the ability to put an object in space is a huge achievement with geopolitical consequences. If you can put an object into space (even low earth orbit) you can put one in Time Square or the Kremlin and no one can stop you. That's why it's a big deal when a country first launches a satellite... Sorry to be the arsehole here. But it should be made clear Ethiopia has NOT just jumped up on the possible threat scale...
- oefrha 7y agoThe accurate title would be “China launched Ethiopia’s first satellite into space.” The original title, “Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space with China’s help”, is still mostly accurate with a generous reading. The submitted title was strangely altered to drop the key caveat, not sure if the submitter disapproves of “Chinese influence” or something.
- dmix 7y agoI’m sure dang or whoever will add the “with China’s help” bit, no biggie.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- nexuist 7y agoIt would be interesting to see what the geopolitical consequences would be of another nation "helping" a smaller nation become ICBM capable. I know that this was basically the premise of the late Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, but in all those instances the Soviet Union and United States owned all their missiles - their individual satellite states didn't have the ability to launch them. But if, say, China were to give away ICBM technology to an ally, for "national security" reasons, so that they could claim plausible deniability...
- LatteLazy 7y agoRight now, Iran has a working ICBM but no nukes and North Korea has working nuked but no ICBM. The nightmare scenario is that they swap kit so both has both. That would make them both untouchable. Nk is crazy enough, they'd demand cash (and fuel and food) not to just press the button and likely get it.
- ajmurmann 7y agoThere is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. It makes you wonder how China's involvement has lead to do much growth in such short time, while the West had been focused on providing to poor, starving African children for decades. I wonder how much the attitude reflected in the comment about the donating grandma is common and how it contributed to the connotative lack of results from Western aid efforts. Did we deep down not want results, but instead mainly make ourselves feel good while keeping Africa in a position where they can provide that feeling to us? What concretely is China doing that we failed to do? How will this pan out on the long term for Africa? So many interesting topics in here!
- blackearl 7y agoChina is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.
- EchoAce 7y agoUnfortunately this may prove to be way more effective than “doing it out of kindness” like we do.
- corporate_shi11 7y agoIt's common that something feels good and seems nice but ends up being unproductive or even counterproductive in the long run.
- agumonkey 7y agoThey're most probably installing levers everywhere on the planet. Now how they're gonna use it is to be seen. Of course without opposing forces China will be free to exploit them to their limit but maybe they won't.
- ttttodayjunior 7y agoBit misleading - China designed and launched the satellite, partially paid for by Ethiopia
- pjc50 7y agoWas wondering how democratic Ethiopia was, and: > The EPRDF won the 2010 elections by a landslide, taking 499 seats, while allied parties took a further 35. Oppositions parties took just 2. Both opposition groups say their observers were blocked from entering polling stations during the election on Sunday, May 23, and in some cases the individuals were beaten. The United States and the European Union have both criticized the election as falling short of international standards. Additionally, the EPRDF won all but one of 1,904 council seats in regional elections.
- dmix 7y agoEthiopia is also an early adopter among developing nations to adopt NSA style surveillance. And like all countries with weak or nonexistent judicial oversight or independent courts, it was used immediately to target the ruling parties political adversaries phones. Including journalists and lawyers. Citizen Lab based out of Canada did a lot of great research exposing it. Of course the Ethiopian gov bought it all from that Israeli “we don’t sell to bad guys” NSO and other western companies. From my understanding the recent election switched the ruling tribe which has resulted in some positive movement and economic development. One of their big issues recently was the ruling tribe suppressing one the other major ones which resulted in big protests and protestors getting killed. I believe that tribe got into power or at least in a better position.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> And like all countries with weak or nonexistent judicial oversight or independent courts, it was used immediately to target the ruling parties political adversaries phones. Including journalists and lawyers. To be fair, that was done in the US (though not immediately, that came to light), which is why we have FISA.
- dmix 7y agoI don’t consider secret courts like FISA sufficiently comparable to independent judicial oversight. It’s oversight theatre. The FISA rulings and arguments never become public, most of the domestic surveillance warrants are justified merely by the fact the people will never find out they were surveilled and therefore won’t be “harmed” by such behaviour (this was the exact argument which Yahoo was given and lost trying to fight it in one of the only public FISA rulings available online). Most importantly only the NSA government lawyers gets to argue the grounds for surveillance is justified. There is never a point in time where it is critical analyzed by outside parties so we put 100% of the trust in the FISA judge panel doing their due diligence and standing up for American citizens rights. But as we saw with the recent Carter Page FBI investigations the feds can feed the FISA courts complete crap and they’ll sign off on it anyway. Multiple times. I love when people act like this isn’t some rubber stamp court and is actually sufficient to protect Americans constitutional rights. It so obviously isn’t and you’d have to be a serious military authoritarian hawk not to see through that nonsense. These secret courts live and die because the average person doesn’t understand how it works and the government is just telling everyone to ”shut up and trust us”... including decades of congressman on the House Intelligence Committee.
- dole 7y agoLittle surprised to see all the ice flaking off the rocket at launch, isn't this a danger to the rest of the booster, lower fins?
- BitwiseFool 7y agoNo, it's only really a problem for payloads strapped to the side of the booster, like the space shuttle.
- zeristor 7y agoWhy has the title been edited, I posted this story the other day with the "... with China's help" ending. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850364
- rburhum 7y agoI am very familiar with the purchasing process of satellites by LATAM countries. Basically the Chinese or the French (i.e. Airbus) come in and offer you a satellite that ranges between 180M-380M USD in price depending on what you want. The price includes a building with a ground station, the launch, and some basic training. If you negotiate correctly, the full telemetry is send only to you and you process it all locally. If you don’t, then they have a hook on you and hand hold you through the entire process - at an additional cost. Additionally, after a country purchases one, they tend to have their own development path for the future ones. For example, the Argentinians did their first four satellites with the help of the US (SAC-A, SAC-B, SAC-C, SAC-D), the next two were done by themselves (ARSAT-1, ARSAT-2), two more with the Italians (SAOCOM-A, SAOCOM-B) and one with the Brazilians (SABIA-MAR). It is a process filled with a lot of politics, questionable monetary interests, and pseudo national pride. It is the new shortcut process by which countries are entering the space era. Buy a satellite when you don't know what you are doing, then co-build it with somebody, then build it by yourself. It effectively saves you billions in trial and error tests that other countries had to go through... but it really begs the question of when is it truly yours, because if you don’t follow the rules (e.g. taking high res imagery of an area you are not supposed to), “your” satellite can easily be temporarily or permanently disabled... and there goes your 300M
- chirau 7y agoWhy do these countries need satellites anyway, what exactly are they using them for?
- mirajshah 7y agoNot sure if you read the linked article: > The 70 kilogram remote sensing satellite is to be used for agricultural, climate, mining and environmental observations, allowing the Horn of Africa to collect data and improve its ability to plan for changing weather patterns for example.
- pergadad 7y agoI guess the real question is whether this is cheaper than to just license these services. And a second question: how much power do others have over you? I'd your agricultural output or tax system becomes dependent on a certain provider/country they have a lot of leeway over you. Same reason Europe and Russia and China built their own satellite-based positioning system: can't trust the US to keep GPS accessible. On the other hand any satellite built for you might have the same issue through some hidden software-based off switches.
- Giorgi 7y agoWait so China launched it from China, with China paying most of it's price. How the hell is this "Ethopian"?
- saschag 7y agoglad they got their priorities straight. wtf.
- cmdshiftf4 7y agoSub-Saharan Africa feels like a missed opportunity now for Europe and the US. While the US and EU has been focused on donating aid, or through NGOs merely shipping Africans into Europe without much of a plan and then shrugging their shoulders when problems arise, China has been making deals there and investing an utterly staggering amount on an on-going basis into its development and future prosperity. Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!", which is shortsighted, lacking in self-awareness and playing into the "everyone that isn't us is the boogeyman" narrative the West likes to maintain. In the same time that China has been spending its money on African investment, the US has been spending literally trillions on literally baseless wars, directly costing the lives of a countless amount of people in doing so and upending the lives of countless others. Good on China, and good for Africa. I hope to live to see that continent prosper, although if any success is in sight I'm sure we'll see the US find some reason to deploy the so-richly invested military there.
- tines 7y ago> Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!", which is shortsighted, lacking in self-awareness and playing into the "everyone that isn't us is the boogeyman" narrative the West likes to maintain. Exactly. There aren't many Uighurs in Africa, so Africa should be fine.
- simlevesque 7y agoIs this a joke ? Uighurs are muslims and Africa is full of them.
- lainga 7y agoYou'd better stay away from Istanbul then, it's full of unspayed Socrates-es. In seriousness, China's problem is not with all Muslims, it's with the Uighurs as a threat to their national integrity (especially in a region with such strategic importance, bordering Pakistan and India, and containing many railheads linking China to the rest of Eurasia). One of China's largest partners is Pakistan -- which is in its own words an Islamic republic -- and whose government generally turns a blind eye to what's happening in Xinjiang.
- VonGuard 7y agoEthiopia is on a real tear right now! The prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, came into power about 2 years ago and the first thing he did was release 100% of political prisoners in the country. It's the first time the country has had no political prisoners in decades. He then grabbed all his opposition together and worked with them. The reforms he's introduced are incredible, and show how things can be fixed in a nation that's torn apart for years by dictatorship and war. Abiy is definitely the greatest leader of our modern era. The man took a totalitarian country at war with its neighbors and flipped it 180 degrees in 18 months. He ended the war, removed totalitarian policies, and the country's people can even admit that there were government funded murder campaigns, something that if you'd talked about previously, you'd have been murdered. A great story all around. He heartily deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
- peter303 7y agoChina is looking for an African location for its deep space network. Perhaps a dual use station in Ethiopia will fill in that gap. The third partner is Argentina.
- alphakappa 7y agoAlmost every time there is a story about a non western country launching rockets or satellites, the trolls come out commenting on how these countries need to be focusing on poverty instead of launching satellites. As if science isn’t a way to improving the lot of people. As if science isn’t a way to motivate a new generation of kids. As if all the communications, weather monitoring, and resource management that satellites make possible aren’t ways to improve the place. As if national pride amounts for nothing. As if countries can only focus on one thing at a time. As if western countries fixed all of their social and economic problems before working on technological advances. Racism has many forms, and this is one. Learn to recognize it and move away from it.