Algeria signs two agreements for space cooperation

Algiers-Algeria signs Monday two partnership agreements in the space field between the Algerian Space Agency and the United Nations Bureau of the Space Data, as well as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

• In a statement to the press on the sidelines of the third African seminar about the space science and technology for the sustainable development, the general manager of the Algerian Space Agency, Azzedine Ousaddik said the first agreement about the embracing of a regional office of the space data by Algeria at the level of North Africa and the Sahel countries.
• “This office has an important role in the prevention from natural disasters in the region through the processing and analysis of satellite data. In the case of a disaster in a certain country, the General Directorate of Civil Protection will mobilize all the available global data space for a quick assistance to the concerned country”.
• The second agreement signed by Algeria, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria about the decision of the governments of these countries which aim to create a constellation of satellites in order to allow Africa to get fast and easy images that would contribute to the development.
• The agreement also aims to establish a system for collecting the necessary data to expectations about agriculture and control of urban development and the filling of land, as well as the use of maps to support the systems of monitoring climate change.  
• The General Manager of the Algerian Space Agency Azzedine Ousaddik said; “The Second Algerian satellite “ Alsat 2” will be launched within the first three months of 2010. This project came within the framework of the national space program which was approved by government in 2006 and extends to 2020. This program includes the design and delivery of space systems for earth observation in various degrees of accuracy, special and spectral as well for a communications space system “Alcom Sat”.