Unknown to many , over twenty rockets have been launched in Kenya into outer space.
Kenya has been participating in Space exploration since the 1960's during the age of Space Race that saw Man land on the moon.
However, Kenya was just renting it's land to the Italian Space Agency who were the ones fully launching the rockets at a cost of 25 million USD annually.
The contract with the Italians ended in 2012 with Kenya not gaining technologically in any sense.
After Uhuru Kenyatta became President in 2013 he saw the need of not just financial gains but also technological advancement incase any future deals like the Italian deal arose...thus he oversaw the establishment of the Kenya Space Agency ( KSA).
The reason why Italy chose to be launching it's rockets in Kenya at the Malindi Space Center rather than build it's own Space Center in Italy is because of our proximity to the Equator. Rocket launches at Equator base are far more efficient than at bases which are on the tropics. But when the European Union came up with European Space Agency ( ESA) Italy cut it's operations on the Malindi base. ESA built it's Space centre at the desert country of Kazakhstan which is 40°N of the equator.
Above is a photo of the Malindi Space Center
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