It's a small step for aerospace but a big step for Tunisia as it launches its first satellite manufactured locally.

The satellite, called Challenge one, which is intended for Internet connectivity, was launched into space Monday.

Tunisia is the first country in the Maghreb to manufacture its own satellite and the sixth on the African continent.

The small satellite will be launched by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Tunisia says it hopes to launch 20 more in the next 3 years.

The African space market is now worth over $7 billion annually, according to the website Space in Africa, which reports that it ”is likely to grow over 40 per cent in the next five years”.

President #Kais_Saied oversees, at #Telnet, the launch of #ChallengeOne, Tunisia’s first homebuilt satellite, from the #Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Soyuz-2 rocket. #TnPR

— Tunisian Presidency - الرئاسة التونسية (@TnPresidency) March 22, 2021