Angolans Left Snickering After Post-Launch Glitch in Country’s First Satellite · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

The launch of Angosat-1 was broadcast live by Televisão Pública de Angola. Image: screengrab, Clubk Clubk/YouTube.
On 25 December, Angola’s first satellite went into orbit, and the launch was celebrated with a large screen broadcasting it live at Marginal de Luanda, one of the city's main avenues, accompanied by fireworks.
Named Anglosat-1, the satellite is Russian-made, the fruit of a Russian-Angolan partnership started in 2009, and is intended to bring high-speed internet and radio and television transmission to various countries in Africa and parts of Europe.
However, hours after its launch from Kazakhstan the satellite lost communications with its Earth platform and remained silent for several hours.
Angolans treated the launch and the glitch with humor, but also took the opportunity to question the narratives of the world's media and the wisdom of spending money on a satellite when human development remains so poor in the country.
Social media was full of comic reactions when news of the satellite's temporary malfunction broke:
Os fazedores de memes estão cada vez mais rápidos e de humor apurado. “O satélite levou chip da Movicel por isso perdeu rede”; “Encontrou-se o satélite algures no Kwanza-Sul, destruiu as viaturas do soba e do administrador”? pic.twitter.com/cXVpanutQ8
— LUATY BEIRÃO (@LuatyBeirao) 27 décembre 2017
Meme makers are getting quicker and sharper in wit. “The satellite used a Movicel chip, that’s why it lost connection” [Movicel is a cellphone operator in Angola]; “The satellite was found somewhere in Kwanza-Sul [province in Angola], it destroyed the vehicles of the soba [community-leader] and the administrator”
Ontem os Angolanos lançaram fogo de artifício para comemorar o lançamento do primeiro satélite angolano.
Hoje a agência espacial russa perdeu contacto com o satélite.
— Bin Laden (@AqueleMortoVivo) December 27, 2017
Yesterday the Angolans launched fireworks to commemorate the launch of the first Angolan satellite.
Today the Russian space agency lost contact with the satellite.
“Moscovo perde sinal do satélite angolano” já não há porno pra ninguém ???
— Carlos Bendito (@CBNigga) December 27, 2017
“Moscow lost the signal of the Angolan satellite” now there is no porn for anybody
Deve estar sem sistema…
Afinal o Satélite é angolano ?
— Tuly Mong™ (@Tulymong) December 27, 2017
Must be without a system…
After all, the satellite is Angolan
Some, though, criticized so much attention being given to the fault in the satellite – which finally re-established contact two days later, according to the Russian maker RSC Energia.
Tanta midia internacional subitamente interessada apenas no fracasso do satélite angolano… hate e vontade de não ver um país africano sobressair é assim tão grande ?
— Cαмιℓσ Jєѕυѕ (@camilo__jesus) December 29, 2017
So much international media suddenly interested only in the Angolan satellite’s failure… the hate and will to not see an African country stand out is so great?
Angola has become the seventh African country, alongside Algeria, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia, to have a communications satellite in orbit.
The Angolan government reports that it has invested 320 million US dollars in the project, which it forecasts that it will recover in two years. According to Minister of State Carvalho da Rocha, the telecommunications operators of Angola spend, together, between 15 and 20 million US dollars each month in renting space on other satellites for the region.
Furthermore, the minister said that 40% of the satellite’s capacity has already been sold, to be used by national telecommunications operators, while the rest should be hired by other operators in Africa and parts of Europe. Angosat-1 should stay in orbit for 15 years.
Imagens exclusivas do Angosat.
Satélite angolano será lançado no próximo mês. Técnicos estão a dar os últimos retoques para a conclusão do angosat. pic.twitter.com/nRLydekx2m
— Portal Angola (@portalangola) November 16, 2017
Exclusive images of Angosat.
The Angolan satellite will be launched next month. Technicians are giving the finishing touches to Angosat’s preparation.
However, some raised concerns, such as activist Pedrowski Teca:
Pergunto:
1 – O que é que a bandeira russa ?? está a fazer no nosso satélite?
2 – Por que que a bandeira da Rússia ?? está em primeiro plano e a de Angola ?? em segundo lugar?
3 – Por que que as escritas no satélite ? estão em língua estranha (parecendo russo)?
I ask:
1 – What is the Russian flag doing on our satellite?
2 – Why is the Russian flag most prominent and Angola’s in second place?
3 – Why is the writing on the satellite in a foreign language (seemingly Russian)?
For Raúl Danda, the satellite is not his priority as an Angolan citizen:
[…] Se é um motivo de orgulho, porque não é qualquer país que leva um satélite próprio ao espaço, o episódio lembra-me o CAN 2010: muita banga para nada ou quase nada. Muitos dos estádios que custaram milhões e milhões de dólares (de custo “custado” e de custo roubado) andam aí com o capim a crescer para pasto de cabritos. Naquele momento, o Executivo do Presidente Eduardo dos Santos (agora “ex”) pretendia apenas mostrar que “nós também podemos”! Desta vez a coisa repete-se. Lançar um satélite é uma coisa boa, super boa até. Mas é preciso primeiro fazer outras realizações. Comprar um BMW quando, em casa, os filhos não têm pão, mais do que absurdo é irracional. Lançar satélite no espaço quando no chão não há medicamentos, comida, educação de qualidade, saúde digna desse nome, saneamento básico…. e outras coisas realmente básicas, parece-me ser de uma irracionalidade terrível…
[…] If it is a reason of pride, because it is not just any country that sends its own satellite into space, this episode reminds me of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations; a lot of show for nothing or almost nothing. Many of the stadiums that cost millions and millions of dollars (a “cost” cost and a stolen cost) remain there with grass growing for the goats to graze. At that time, the government of President Eduardo dos Santos (now “ex”) intended only to show that “we can too”! This time that repeats itself. Launching a satellite is a good thing, even really good. But it is first necessary to achieve other things. Buying a BMW while, at home, the children have no bread, is, more than absurd, irrational. Launching a satellite into space while on the ground there is no medicine, food, quality education, healthcare worthy of that name, basic sanitation … and other really basic things, seems to me a terrible irrationality…
Another Angolan activist questioned why the government had brought religious practitioners to attend the launch ceremony:
Aqueles “Lideres Religiosos” que foram levados à Moskovo- Rússia, no âmbito do lançamento do tal satelite que já anda desaparecido foram mesmo fazer o que ?
Este governo parece que ainda não deixou o habito de gastar dinheiro desnecessáriamente, ou estes custiaram a sua viajem?
— Simão Hossi (@simaohossi) 27 décembre 2017
Those “religious leaders” who were brought to Moscow-Russia, for the launch of the satellite which has already gone missing, were there to do what? It seems that this government has not stopped its habit of spending money unnecessarily, or did they pay for their own travel?