This is a milestone! If it goes well, long after our inept leaders are gone, we shall definitely continue to enjoy the benefits of these satellites.
To those who are criticizing this move as wrong, my message is: let us not to be critics for critics sake. Objectivity is paramount in our criticism. To the guy quoting Abraham Maslow, Nigeria's need is multifarious, it depends on who you are asking.

"You cannot be critical without being hypocritical!" - anonymous

Do you guys know that these sattelites don't stay up in space forever. They have a specific period or lifetime they stay in orbit after their lifetime expires they self destruct i.e. blow up in space. Investing in space technology is a good thing as long as we can balance the equation with providing essential ameneties for people on earth. And about the nigcomsat3, those Chinese are crooks. I don't believe anything happened to the sattelite they just redirected the signal to another base station. But nothing to worry about the insurance will build another one for Nigeria.

Wondeful,

Milestone in space and yet nothing on the face of the earth. . . punk nation with messed up leader with misplaced focus

^^^^sharrapp!

Hanoobaba:

Do you guys know that these sattelites don't stay up in space forever. They have a specific period or lifetime they stay in orbit after their lifetime expires they self destruct i.e. blow up in space. Investing in space technology is a good thing as long as we can balance the equation with providing essential ameneties for people on earth. And about the nigcomsat3, those Chinese are crooks. I don't believe anything happened to the sattelite they just redirected the signal to another base station. But nothing to worry about the insurance will build another one for Nigeria.

tell them oh.

hw important is it afterall its the arabs and them asians that operate them in nigeria's name, cr
ap!

[size=22pt]People, please see this show of shame as GOV. SEGUN ONI EKITI TORTURE JOURNALIST DAT COVERS D RERUN ELECTION![/size]
http://www.?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvideo%2Fvideo.php%3Fv%3D295992560547%26ref%3Dnf&h=eaeb094cb5255d81fc3cf2b7d7b7a208

[size=22pt]Help to spread the word, this injustice to journalists must stop![/size]

nigeria has spent billions of dollars on space technology but how much impact has such impacted on us, It's high time we stopped deceiving ourselves and move ahead.How many institutes of technology do we have?;but the few universities of technology have deviated from their purpose.,all our achievements technological are foreign-backed,when are we going to have our own scientists,technologists,engineers that will be able to justify that nigeria on her own can achieve anything technologically, So lets wise up

stay away

[size=35pt]becomerich seek mental help[/size]

this is grave!

by the way how come all the yoruba governors are gangsters

agberos

some pple just come on here and display an awsome degree of ignorance. abeg if ur not informed abt anytin dont even start to debate on it.
@sojiabolar, so if we av problems wit electricity then we shouldnt try solvin other sections of our lives? Abi? pple on this forum av reeled out d benefits of this space program so its not an exercise in futility. Wat we shud hope for is for it to wk out well.
How u can say its only in nija we hear of teachers goin on strike is beyond me. South africa is more advanced dan nija and pple, includin teachers go on strike every day.

It baffles me most times to see ow some morons among us Nigerians do not think before postin and reactin to a sensitive topic like this, the topic says 'Nigeria records a milestone in space' it spks good news and shows we r makin progress somewhere, perhaps some of y'all here will wag tongues if its reported to b South Africa or some other African countries, if some of y'all r ignorant of d benefit of space technology simpy cos u want to eat eat, ride in porsh cars build uncontable houses u cant live in at d same time, that doesnt make us stupid and daft not to c d benefit of space technology, improved telecom, revolution in I.T etc, This is an investment into d future. Its a commendable feat as far as am concerned if d benefit is channeled into d right direction. No doubt we have some pressin issues at hand that needs to b sougted but that doesnt measn when we record some progress in some quarters we should b dumb not to applaud, commend and give necessary support needed for them to do more. Nigeria's prob is multi-dimensional and we need to tackle it phase by phase, This could b a steppin stone to greater height, Lets not criticise d govt blindly. Its a collective efort needed to take ds country to greater height and among d collective effort needed is for us as d led to b objective in our criticisms to issues like this. Sefini!

May God help us out of this mess

@ Becomerich, The owner of Nairaland is Yoruba. What is your Beff all about?

Nigeria's problem has always been corruption and mismanagement. Are we going to maintain our space station adequately?? To mainatain the station would take alot of funding. Will corruption not ruin the project?

What happened to naija sat1?

Someone should tell me how these so called Nigerian engineers in space were selected. what was the criteia used for the selection process. If we can get that foundational part right, then I may start believing again that the govt has a vision. If they dont, then it means they dont still do not have a vision for space programmes and its real benefits, hence they will only recruit people who just see space programme as another plum job funded by the govt. and not real explorers who are willing to be adventurous and creative to bring about the expected impacts of a country owning a satellite.

"Head bowed,  braves walks away in disgust at the state of affairs in Nigeria thinking of how successful the SAT I programme might have been if any of his peers who were approved by the foreign inspectors had been allowed to be part of the programme" 

This hurts. I just hope they get the basics right, else we will have a space programme that may never be truly controlled by Nigeria, which means we will not be able to maximize its use but only deal to the whims and dictates of our "colonial masters". I weep from my heart for the generations unborn.

AND WHO SAYS IT ISNT A GOOD DEV. THE PROBLEM IS THAT; WHAT ACHIEVEMENT HAVE DEY MADE ON LAND?
TALKMORE OF SPACE YOU 'N I KNOW THAT NIG. GOV ARE ONLY GOOD AT STARTING A PROJECT WHAT HAPPENS
AFTER 1YR?.

I CANT AGREE MOR TO PEEP WHO SAY ROADS,HOSP,SCHS,ELECTRICITY,SECURITY, I MEAN WELLBEING OF THE
PEOPLE SHOULD BE 1ST PRIOROTY NOT WASTING OF MONEY ON PROJECTS THEY WILL ABANDON AFTER 1YR. GUSH!!!!

The rational behind whiteman going to space is because they think they have the earth in their grip,meanwhile,we as a peolpe still haven't been able to provide clean water,descent shelters,clothings,welfare and good enviroment for our children here on earth,yet we want to go to space.

Things have fallen apart and the center cannot hold.we are missing the core fundamentals of life.

of course.,,,,,,,in EMPTY SPACE!

I laugh in pidgin english

The owner of Nairaland is Yoruba. What is your Beff all about?

then he is a traitor to yorubas.

Well, i believe they'll be smart enough to locate the control station in another country. If not NEPA go show them the definition of Power Holding

complove:

then he is a traitor to yorubas.

Aint you that dude from mapomeji records

Anyway, i hear some of you guys attacking people who are critical of this whole blue-cyan elephant project! Do you live in this country?

complove:

then he is a traitor to yorubas.

Then why are you using his site and generating him money?

I really want to be happy about this news, but as a bonafide Nigerian, residing in Nigeria, I guess we should just wait and see.

milestone in space wen people no get work to do,no food to chop,our boys dey go inside crime our girls dey do ashawo work,na God go punish dem,na that stone wey dey for the milestone go kill all of dem 

becomrich,:

stay away

sharaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap the issue has nothing to do with yoruba or tribe

i really don't understand this country.

things on land have not worked out,we are talking of space.are we alright at all?

Why must we always be the laughing stock of the world?

ordinary electricity,we don't have ,we are expending millions in a white elephant" project, to forecast weather-which light will you use in watching the TV  or listenninig to  the radio to  get the forecast?,

where are the experts to forecast the weather going to come from when our education system is in a state of commatose?-import oyinbos again abi?

do we need space to grow/monitor crop production  when our farmers are too poor to engange in the simplest form of mechanized farming?

do we need space to extract and use  bitumen to fix our  "crater" infested  roads that have turned to death traps?

do we need space to fix our hospitals?

do we need space to have dignity and shame;rid ourselves of the demonic greed that has engulfed our leaders so much that one wonders if they were actually in a lucid mental state when they loot the unimaginable large sums that could last  a man two life times?

we are so full of Sh***t!

IYA NGBALI:

milestone in space wen people no get work to do,no food to chop,our boys dey go inside crime our girls dey do ashawo work,na God go punish dem,na that stone wey dey for the milestone go kill all of dem

I Laugh, not at the idea of us having a space programme but at the blind critcisms I see on this thread. To make things clear, the milestones achieved are in building our satellites and not going to space. Please, we are not launching any rocket into space, that part is normally contracted out and a single rocket can deliver more than one satellite at a time into Orbit.

Let's treat the issues raised one by one.

1-It's a waste of money:
NigeriaSat-1 cost $10m to build, that's about N1.6bn in today's exchange rate. That is something even a small state in Nigeria can afford. NigComSat was built at no cost to Nigeria, it was suppose to pay for itself with the revenue it will generate. But we lost it, still at no cost because it is insured and another one is going to be build.

2-It is built by foreigners, so we do not own it:
Most satellites owned by countries were contracted out. But our case is different, Nigerian engineers are currently building NigeriaSat-X without any foreign engineers in the team.

3-It's a misplaced priority cos we don't need satellites:
we indeed need satellites because most of our communications is still using (foreign) satellite infrastructure. Look at all the VSATs around, NTA, Nitel e.t.c still use satellites. We are losing foreign exchange because we do not have our own satellites.

4-We should tackle power and road problems first:
Power is the concern of the ministry of Power and Steel, roads are the concern of ministry of works, does the ministry of science and technology have to wait for them to finish before they embark on space projects? Taking that analogy, does NTA stops transmission because there is no electricity to  power our televisions?

5- We can not manage it, we've already lost one:
space projects are very risky, it is common to lose satellites. The so-called advanced countries have lost tons of satellites but they never quit. Our space programme is so far considered successful. We've launched our first satellite in 2003 and our second in 2007. We plan to launch NigeriaSat-2 in 2010 and NigComSat-1R in 2011 to replace the lost NigComSat-1. 

How come nobody is complaining about all the billions being spent on hosting football tournaments. Is sports more important to us than technology or is hosting the world cup going to provide stable electricity and good roads? I think our journalists also need to grow up and learn to report technology adequately, they need to have a little knowledge of what they are reporting so that they do no misguide the public.