Ivory Coast Signs Artemis Accords as 75th Nation at Africa Space Expo

The Africa Space Expo (ASPEX), which closed last week in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, produced two government-to-government agreements and a set of national programs that show how space policy on the continent is turning into built infrastructure, according to Al Jazeera. Organizers built the expo around a marketplace format — start-ups, project labs and investors working on food security, climate monitoring, territorial surveillance, connectivity and maritime security — rather than a display of rockets or astronaut programs, Al Jazeera reported.

What number did Ivory Coast add to the Artemis Accords?

Ivory Coast signed the Artemis Accords during the expo, becoming the 75th country to join the U.S.-led framework on norms for space exploration and development, Al Jazeera reported. The accords set non-binding principles for how signatory nations conduct civil space activity, including exploration and resource use, and have grown steadily since their 2020 launch as more countries seek a seat at the table on space governance.

What did Angola and the UAE agree to?

Angola signed a letter of intent on space cooperation with the United Arab Emirates at the same event, according to Al Jazeera. The report did not detail specific programs or funding tied to the letter, which functions as a preliminary commitment rather than a binding contract.

How old is Ghana's space program, and what happened to the original reactor?

Ghana's institutional interest in space and nuclear science dates to 1961, when President Kwame Nkrumah's government started a nuclear reactor project in Accra, Al Jazeera reported. Parliament created the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission by act in 1963 to oversee peaceful nuclear applications. The reactor project was shelved after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, but the commission survived and remains the parent body of today's Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), according to the report.

Joseph Tandoh, GSSTI's director, told Al Jazeera the country's more recent space work grew out of a partnership with South Africa. "Ghana became a partner through South Africa," Tandoh said. "Through that project, we were able to reconstruct the old satellite antenna at Kuntunse into a radio telescope."

How did Ghana turn an old antenna into a radio telescope?

Ghana converted a redundant 32-meter (105-foot) satellite antenna at Kuntunse into a working radio telescope through its partnership with South Africa on the African Square Kilometre Array project, Al Jazeera reported. Ghana was the first of South Africa's eight African SKA partner countries to finish that conversion, and the telescope began operating in August 2017, according to the report.

What has Ghana's National Space Policy delivered since 2022?

Ghana's cabinet approved a National Space Policy in 2022, and the government formally launched it in 2024, Al Jazeera reported. In 2025 the government approved the creation of a dedicated Ghana Space Agency, a step toward building a standalone national institution for the sector rather than housing space work inside the atomic energy commission's descendant body. Al Jazeera framed the harder test as whether Ghana can move past using space technology developed elsewhere to designing and building more of it domestically.

What is GEOMAIZE monitoring on the ground?

One answer is already running at GSSTI. Tandoh told Al Jazeera that GEOMAIZE, a joint project between GSSTI and VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium, has applied satellite data to Ghanaian agriculture by monitoring crop health and developing algorithms to classify crop types. The project is the kind of applied, deployment-stage work ASPEX organizers said they wanted to highlight — moving from policy documents and demonstration projects toward tools farmers and agencies can actually use, according to the report.

Taken together, the Abidjan agreements and Ghana's timeline — a 1963 atomic energy act, a 2017 radio telescope, a 2022 policy, a 2025 agency approval — trace a slower but continuous build-out rather than a single launch event. Al Jazeera's reporting did not include cost figures, staffing numbers, or a timeline for when the Ghana Space Agency becomes operational, details that would clarify how quickly the country can close the gap between owning space policy and manufacturing space hardware.

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