The country has already begun to work out plans, said the CEO of ZINGS, Painos Gweme
HARARE, December 10th. /tass/. Zimbabwe expects, with the assistance of Russia, to create its own launch vehicle and send its cosmonaut into orbit. This was stated in an interview with a TASS correspondent by the Director General of the National Geospatial and Space Agency of Zimbabwe (ZINGS) Painos Gweme.
"We expect that with the assistance of our Russian colleagues, we will be able to launch our own rocket into space over the next 10 years," he said. - We hope that our first rocket will be launched from our own cosmodrome. We have already begun to work out plans, we are choosing a place whose natural conditions would be best suited for creating a launch complex. We are also thinking about launching the first Zimbabwean cosmonaut and have started negotiations with Roscosmos. At the first stage, we are talking about connecting to the Russian cosmonaut training system."
On November 5, the Zimbabwean satellite ZimSat-2 was launched using a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome. The device is designed to monitor the Earth and collect data necessary in various fields: agriculture, environmental protection, and natural resource management. A few days ago, a ground-based satellite tracking station equipped with the assistance of the Russian Federation was successfully commissioned in Mazova (near the capital of Zimbabwe).
Cooperation with Roscosmos
According to the head of ZINGS, it began cooperation with the Russian Federation in 2021 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Roscosmos on the peaceful use of outer space. "First of all," said Gweme, "Roscosmos has provided us with several scholarships. Our engineers were able to study at several universities in Russia in specialized specialties. They also began to implement a partnership program in scientific research on the design of spacecraft, their testing and launch. We have established ties with the Southwestern State University in Kursk. Our engineers jointly developed a satellite project, which was then built and launched into space. The cooperation is based on the excellent mutual understanding that has been established between our specialists."
The head of ZINGS said that the training of Zimbabwean specialists on Roscosmos scholarships is underway at the Samara National Research University named after Academician S. P. Korolev, in MAI. "We intend to continue cooperation with Roscosmos and move on to larger projects," Gveme stressed. - We want to design and build a larger ZimSat-3 for Zimbabwe, weighing about 2 tons. It will be launched into geostationary orbit, and not into low-Earth orbit, as it is now. The satellite will cover the national needs for telephone, television and radio broadcasting and the Internet."
Satellite tracking station
"When we started cooperating with Roscosmos, we had, one might say, an amateur ground-based tracking station," Gveme stressed. - Then, with the assistance of Southwestern University, we were able to create a full-fledged commercial-level station capable of operating in all major bands. Now we can even receive information from about 20 Russian satellites on the topics we need: weather forecast, environmental control, fighting steppe fires. Specialists from Southwestern University visited us, installed the equipment, set it up. Very encouraging results have been obtained. We are very pleased with this cooperation and strive to expand it."
