Video: Uganda's First Satellite PearlAfricaSat-1 Goes into Space

Uganda’s first satellite has been launched into International Aerospace by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The U.S. space agency said on Monday that NASA commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard lifted off from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore at 5:32:42 a.m. EST this morning.

Bunyoro’s Kibiro Cultural Site Assessed for UNESCO World Heritage Status

Qcil’s Frederick Kakooza Named 2026 CFO of the Year

Q2 Budget Release: AFCON 2027, Health & Infrastructure Get Major Boost

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with the company’s Cygnus spacecraft aboard, launched at 5:32 a.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman’s 18th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver more than 8,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. The CRS-18 Cygnus spacecraft is named after the first American woman in space, Sally Ride. Credit: NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility/Jamie Adkins

Aboard the rocket is BIRDS-5, a constellation of CubeSats: PEARLAFRICASAT-1, the first satellite developed by Uganda; ZIMSAT-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite; and TAKA from Japan.

Uganda’s First Satellite Launched into the International space station

This is Northrop Grumman’s 18th contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station.

We have liftoff! 🚀

The S.S. Sally Ride spacecraft, named after the first American woman in space, has launched from @NASA_Wallops at 5:32am ET (1032 UTC). #CRS18 pic.twitter.com/jNWpne9aPJ

— NASA (@NASA) November 7, 2022

Cygnus is in orbit and on its way to the International Space Station with more than 8,200 pounds of cargo.

This Cygnus, dubbed the S.S. Sally Ride (named after the first American woman in space), is scheduled to arrive at the space station on Wednesday, Nov. 9.