2019 — Ethiopia Launches Its First Satellite

On December 20, 2019, a Long March rocket lifted off from China's Taiyuan launch center carrying ETRSS-1 — Ethiopia's first satellite. The 70 kg remote-sensing satellite was built by Chinese engineers alongside 21 Ethiopian scientists, a partnership that put Ethiopian expertise aboard the country's first mission into orbit.

The satellite now feeds weather forecasts, crop monitoring, and drought early warnings to an agriculture-dependent nation. That purpose is the story: this was not a satellite launched for prestige alone, but a working tool pointed back at Ethiopian fields and skies — information from orbit, gathered to help farmers plan, and to warn families before drought does its worst.