Botswana launches first satellite BOTSAT-1 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9

Don’t want to belittle the achievement but they launched it as in „had it launched by the commercial launch provider SpaceX“, not on a self-developed rocket as it sounds like on the first read.

Of course, even Europe cannot launch cheaply anymore. Arianespace is crawling to space; they are left for dead. The only serious players are the US and China. It's reached a point where it has become like trying to manufacture a state-of-the-art 5nm chip in a developing nation: possible, but at an absurd cost. You might achieve an initial parametric yield of only 10%, meaning only a tiny fraction of the chips coming off the line meet the basic electrical specifications. Even then, the functional yield (the percentage that actually performs the intended computation correctly at the target speed) might be even lower, say 5%. You'd be throwing away 95 out of every 100 chips, and the cost per usable die would be astronomical due to the sheer expense of acquiring and maintaining the lithography equipment, cleanroom facilities, and specialized expertise – resources that are heavily concentrated in a few leading nations and require years, if not decades, to build from scratch.

I mean basically everyone launches their first satellite using a third party launch provider which is usually SpaceX. If there's someone missing credit here it's Endurosat for providing the satellite bus and doing integration work, but the payload and operation which is the novel bit will be Botswanan. It's like you don't have to credit Linus Torvalds or Brendan Eich for their contributions to your first web service...

(Fun fact: not only does SpaceX not care about not getting credit for rideshares, they actively request you don't mention them in advance publicity)

the word sovereign does not appear in this reply

What do you think about RFA?

Rocket development seems more of a matter of capital than anything so it's hard to take this critique seriously. Good for them.

My problem isn’t that they used a provider for the launch.

I just wanted to clarify because „X launches satellite“ sounds like X launched a rocket carrying a satellite, not that X made a satellite and had it launched by someone else.

Or maybe that’s just me, I’m not a native speaker.

And Isar Aerospace is also European and is set to launch tomorrow (although they seem to think it will explode at some point). But I don’t know if they will be particularly cheap.

Very few organizations and even countries can develop both a launch vehicle and a satellite. Botswana has done fine to develop a satellite that integrates onto a rideshare launch. They aren't working with anything close to the headcount or budget of NASA or even the ESA.

Edit (rather than reply and make the comment chain long): It's fine that you read it that way. I figure that if the article were about a launch vehicle then it would have been the rocket's name in the title, and if the article were about the satellite then it would have the satellite's name (BOTSAT-1). If Botswana had developed both an orbital launch vehicle and their first satellite then I'd bet the headline would have been sensational.

SpaceX didn't spend an absurd amount of money getting Falcon 9 to where it is. It was a lot, but pretty typical, even somewhat cheap, for developing a brand new rocket. Repeating their feat should be even cheaper, since you won't be taking detours trying out parachutes and such before settling on the final architecture. It's a relatively straightforward application of known technology, not bleeding edge stuff like 5nm chip making.

An organization that can produce Ariane 6 should be able to produce a Falcon 9 clone with similar effort. The real problem is overcoming the of the old, slow, expensive way of doing things.

Maybe my comment should have been more clear. I don’t think it’s surprising or bad that they don’t have their own launch vehicle, I just found the headline a bit misleading because it could sound that way. It’s still a great achievement.

That seems an uncharitable read of the GP. I too assumed from the headline that by using the verb launch, it was referring to an indigenous vehicle.

I get what you're saying, something like "Botswana successfully begins orbital operations of its first satellite" would be more accurate, but simply not clickbaity enough.

While I agree with the sentiment, my tiny island nation with a population of 5m people was able to develop satellite launch capabilities.

It’s more a case of does it make economic or strategic sense to do so. For most countries it wouldn’t.

Why do they ask you not to mention them publicly?

> The only serious players are the US and China

Forgot one

https://www.rocketlaunch.live/?filter=roscosmos

Funnily enough the European Launcher Challenge just dropped recently, supposed to be modelled on NASA's procurement process that ultimately lead to SpaceX being a thing. But the EUR169m contracts aren't likely to get you a Falcon 9 clone, and there isn't exactly a ton of private capital for newspace sloshing around in Europe

If anything Europe has the opposite problem: the launch startups are all far too small to do anything on a Falcon 9 scale. SpaceX did't get to Falcon 9 early either. Sure, Arianespace probably could build a Falcon 9 clone, but it's not something they'd want to self fund, and there's quite a few ESA members that don't want to see most of their budget contributions go to funding the development of a foreign launch monopolist...

The bigotry is assuming this is a low expectation for a country that gained independence less than 60 years ago.

It's a whole satellite now in orbit for the people of Botswana. The payload is plenty of engineering, people. What an amazing feat

I assume because they don't exactly need the promotion, and a ton of small companies on rideshares mentioning SpaceX in advance of missions they then fail to successfully operate (usually through no fault of SpaceX's) isn't good publicity.

How much of that US/NZ effort was NZ though?

No, it's not just you, the phrase "launches first satellite" in the title is very similar language to what would be used about a country developing launch capability. For example, when headlines say "North Korea launches first spy satellite", the part of that which is big news is their ability to launch a satellite, rather than their ability to build a spy satellite.

(eg.) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-flags...

> Very few organizations and even countries can develop both a launch vehicle and a satellite.

I would remove the last three words from that.

Launch vehicles are hard. Satellites are easy. This is a cubesat, even.

It's standard language used by the press. As explained further up the comment chain, very few nations have the capability to even put a satellite into orbit.

The notability is that they have a satellite up for their purposes; they're not trying to claim that they did the launch themselves.

If this were some random corporation, none of you wouldn't have blinked an eyelid at a title like "Megacorp successfully launches first satellite" when all but 3-4 companies in the world rely on someone else to do the launch.

There's more hair-splitting going on here than in a hair salon.

But you did mean to belittle the achievement, just like when people say, "I don't mean to offend you but ...", they know they are going to offend you and still choose to by saying what they wanted to say.

I like passive aggressive tone

Your tiny island nation (New Zealand) with a GDP an order of magnitude bigger than Botswana's?

Sure, developing a single satellite isn't something that makes a lot of sense in a first order economic assessment. They are definitely not going to be able to sell the data they collect for the millions of dollars they spent on the program. And they definitely spent more on the satellite than they would have spent buying equivalent imagery from commercial providers for the next few years. There is almost no chance that they will have a satellite with competitive technical specs.

But nobody is comparing Botswana to NZ. This is their first satellite. Having a satellite program at the national university is a point of national pride. It will inspire their young people and encourage them to study STEM. It gives valuable practical experience to their people, some of whom might go on to start a space systems company and bring high tech business opportunities to their country. This is a step toward moving part of their economy from being based on natural resources (diamonds, the value of which are subject to the whims of a cartel that they don't control), to being based on knowledge.

SpaceX tired of winning

russia is poor now that their entire economy is shaken by war, I doubt they would even get competitive in the future

even I would award third place to India or CNSA

we talking about Botswana here, not disrespect to botswana but you can't launch rocket with some serious publication first

we know that china would have rocket back then because scientific advancement, you cant skip steps

If it's so easy to clone it, where are the clones?

I've been reading about Airbus' reusable/recoverable SpaceX-killers for over a decade now. They've yet to have anything to show for their work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeline_(rocket_stage)

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33006056 ("Airbus unveils 'Adeline' re-usable rocket concept" (2015))

- "...Airbus says it has been working on the concept since 2010 and has even flight-tested small demonstrators..."

(That BBC article predates the first Falcon rocket landing).

Luckily for you, the linked site has upcoming schedules to trivially look this up. India has 6 launches upcoming in 2025, Rosskosmos has 8 and Russian military has one more. So Russia is launching 50% more than India in 2025.

Don't get me wrong, that problem of overcoming the old, slow, expensive way of doing things is huge for any established launch organization. I don't expect Airbus or ULA to get there. But it's not because the technology is so difficult that they can't do it. A new rocket company with a couple billion dollars in funding would have a good chance.

… this does not seem like their best use of resources.

> Edit (rather than reply and make the comment chain long):

Sorry to go meta here, but this is just rude, both to OP and to other readers.

For OP, you're effectively pre-empting what they say with your own counterargument, and even more so you're removing the ability for them to counter your counter. You're essentially using the edit feature to end the conversation and ensure you have the final word.

For other readers, you're introducing confusing non-linear flow.

Just reply. It's not hard, and as you can see below you didn't actually prevent a subthread from forming.

roscosmos launch is because they still get contract from NASA to International Space Station

But it's also the same language used in headlines for dozens of "launches first satellite" articles that don't involve novel launch capability, including countries (Bahrain and Senegal were recent) as well as satellite companies. Confusing maybe, especially if you think Botswana might actually have spaceports or domestic launch capability, but common practice.

It's even used in trade press articles about Falcon 9 launches of satellites operated by countries that once had homegrown launch capability and are actively investing in regaining it... https://www.janes.com/osint-insights/defence-news/air/update...

Botswana is actually reasonably well developed and stable. It seems fine, and I applaud them.

Can you expand on this? I'm curious how you think these resources should be better allocated.

Make sure the same argument doesn't apply to any of the other countries with space assets!

> Sorry to go meta here, but this is just rude, both to OP and to other readers. ... You're essentially using the edit feature to end the conversation and ensure you have the final word.

I've noticed this more and more, especially on more controversial topics (which this is certainly not).

Adam makes a statement, Betty responds. Adam responds, and Betty edits her initial response and conversation ends, likely because Adam didn't see the edit.

Note that in doing so, they'd be reaching where SpaceX was a decade ago, and by the time they got there, it seems pretty likely that full reusability will be working a year or so from now, at least for basic earth-orbit flights.

India’s ISRO is definitely a serious player.

Politically stable, relatively low corruption and economical acceptable. They are doing many things well relative to the rest of Africa. On the other hand, 30% of their women have HIV.

> SpaceX didn't spend an absurd amount of money getting Falcon 9 to where it is

That's part of the genius of SpaceX's approach, which culminated in achieving what no one else has achieved on a comparatively shoestring budget.

Credit where it's due: Elon Musk (a) comprehended enough of the technical challenge to ask great questions (and see through BS answers), (b) set and maintained a ruthlessly efficient operational vision, (c) repeatedly took existential financial risks to achieve the next milestone, and (d) set a company vision that motivated people to work extremely hard to achieve what was previously impossible, and (e) worked his butt off solving problem after problem alongside employees.

Love or hate him, very few leaders have ever existed who led companies to accomplish similar feats.

Why remove it? It doesn’t change what they say.

So true. I think most people don't realise how hard it is really to build a engine that works.

These types of countries can't even keep power, internet WAN, mobile RAN/Core, infra up on a consistent basis. I knew it had to be something like this. Yes, mask off. Yes, I am tired.

I am not saying that this is the case with Botswana but it could also be a matter of priorities. At least North Korea is able to do orbital launches while the living conditions of an average citizen is less than ideal.

Who are you to make such a judgement? What is your expertise on Botswana?

> This initiative will enable BIUST to build a sustainable pipeline of space technology projects while facilitating hands-on learning opportunities for students and researchers

Having been part of a student satellite program, and having subsequently built my career on it, I can tell you that there is nothing more efficient at teaching students than giving them a bunch of money and telling them to build a satellite.

This satellite will be operated for many years by many students who will learn practical knowledge about satellites.

Because it’s not clear which of the two things makes doing both hard.

Developing a basic satellite is very straightforward at this point and there are countless unrecognizable companies that help do this.

Plenty of small nation states have the financial resources and a government ministry-level "space" department that has the money to launch up to like, a 6U size cubesat, but don't have their own launcher. This is in fact more normal than not, if you look at a map of countries which have their own locally developed, frequently-in-use launchers capable of sending at least 100kg to low earth orbit, vs those which do not.

Isn’t that fine? Not all of those conversations have to be taken to the end.

I'm curious, which "type" of country are you saying Botswana is?

As far as I'm aware of Botswana does not have the power outages of its neighbour South Africa …

Perhaps you're right, maybe it is a mask off moment for you …

“Botswana, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, has recently made considerable strides in developing a reliable electricity supply network to support its growing economy and improve the quality of life for its citizens. However, occasional power outages and load shedding do still occur during peak demand periods or when there are unforeseen challenges, such as equipment failures or extreme weather events.” https://www.sinalda.com/world-voltages/africa/voltage-botswa...

> can't even keep power, internet WAN, mobile RAN/Core, infra up on a consistent basis.

You could say this as well about significant parts of Appalachia in the US and other impoverished regions of the US, and many first nations reserves in remote parts of Canada too.

Companies frequently do this kind of thing when they don’t want you to use them as promo material through an implied partnership.

Because spacex also makes satellites, they don’t want confusion about which satellites are theirs. “MyCompany Partners with SpaceX to launch new communications satellite” is not something their PR team wants to deal with disambiguating.

Yes, and it would surprising if someone claimed those First Nations launched a satellite.

It's like saying "it's really hard to build both a nuclear reactor and a quadcopter".

It's technically true but makes the second one sound a lot harder than it really is. A hobbyist can make a cubesat, and if they do something clever they might even find a grant to pay for the launch.

Botswana is a stable democracy, with a pretty good HDI. Satellite tech is extremely important for public safety and agriculture. Seems fine to me.

It is very difficult to change mass culture.

Need to work on both high tech and low wage opportunities at the same time. Without having high tech there will be a bigger brain drain, many people that gets educated or starts a business with higher ambitions will leave as soon as they can. Having high tech opportunities slows down the brain drain and increases the potential to create different industries that support the country. Also as there will be many first in the country such as building a satellite there will be more potential to grow for anyone wanting to enter that industry even if the current economic benefit is lower than say other countries. For instance USA can grow mostly from developing new technology and their population growth (traditionally from immigration), A country like Botswana can grow from improving their current infrastructure (education, catching up in technology etc) AND new technology and population growth. First movers will get a bigger piece of the pie an have long term benefit. This is a bit simplified but should give a picture of how this would benefit Botswana.

Launch vehicle development program: $1 billion

Cubesat: $100k

You remove it because of the 4 orders of magnitude.

You'd be surprised how little a 3U Endurosat bus and a rideshare costs...

Not sure exactly how essential indigenous Earth Observation capabilities are for Botswana, but Botswanan engineers who worked on it and their university would actually be pretty well placed for future collaboration with low cost satellite component manufacturers in South Africa...

It's amazing to see the stark difference when crossing the border from Zimbabwe into Botswana.

Could also be because rate limiting. People need to conserve their number of posts per day.

24% of the country is malnourished and 4% of children die before their 5th birthday. This feels like misaligned priorities...

https://www.globalhungerindex.org/botswana.html

Mm, as long as the edit is clear it seems like a good way to avoid unproductive arguments.

Adam makes a statement, but the responses show the statement was unclear and/or leads into tangential arguments. An edit can clarify the initial statement for future readers without getting the original poster stuck in the back-and-forth necessary to escape whatever quagmire the unedited version created.

I really liked Peter Santellos video on Appalachia. Really beautiful landscape and small towns. There was affluent housing there too and pretty sure they would have cell service?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEyPgwIPkHo5If6xyrkr-...

But Appalachia are not launching satellites. They DO have a space telescope!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope

Very nice video also showing nice landscapes and towns :)

Exploring the Secret US Government Town with No Internet & Phone Service (100% Disconnected?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJBAGrG0ms

>and many first nations reserves in remote parts of Canada too

Ok, but it would be suprising if an article said they are launching a sattelite?

How are satellite engineers supposed to address malnourished children?

Yes some people get rate limited here, I think it’s the default. I’ve edited comments like this simply because I couldn’t respond, even after like an hour. I think I emailed the mods here and they removed the limit, but I still try to conserve posting when I can, even deleting responses that weren’t very good, sometimes.

I took “launch” a bit less literal. They launch a product, an initiative, whatever.

Imagine you're having an in-person conversation with someone in a crowded restaurant. Rather than addressing their next response to you, they wait until you go to the bathroom. Then they turn to everyone at the next table and say, "that guy doesn't get it, but fine."

I personally think that in a no-holds-barred debate, you don't bother trying to convince your interlocutor of anything. You focus on persuading everyone else in the room. But it's rude to treat every polite conversation as a smackdown debate. Such a strategy can also backfire by turning off your intended audience, as evidenced here.

> baby being fed this equality all countries are good blergh blergh bs all my life.

Nobody in this thread has made anything like those kinds of sentiments. The very fact that we are taking note of Botswana's satellite nearly 70 years after Spitnik 1 makes it quite obvious how much less developed they are in aerospace. I would think that especially if someone is against such things as foreign aid to non-Europeans, and culturally relative assessment of intelligence, that they would be in favor of seeing countries like Botswana take steps to develop home grown expertise in engineering, reducing the need to rely on outside largesse, and coming a step closer to achieving developmental escape velocity.

Not to sound rude, but I don't know what your normative culture is or why any of us should care what you think is rude on the internet when you lack the self awareness to know that etiquette has no objective basis and is always contingent.

You could skip the disparaging characterizations and make your case for why you think it would be a good guideline. Ie, because it is confusing and non-linear, not because of a bunch of motivations you've inferred about a stranger.

> etiquette has no objective basis and is always contingent

But what it's contingent on is what's actually manifest rather than some speculative hypothetical that seems a contrivance to nullify the applicability of any etiquette anywhere.

FWIW, the previous commenter's points that adding edits to an existing post in order to reply to comments further downstream is confusing and impolite behavior. It's useful on Reddit in response to malicious use of the ill-advised 'block' feature, but doesn't fit on HN.

I agree that it's poor form at least in the context of HN - we want to be able to trace the "commit history"

Where’d you read that this is a cubesat? The article implies it’s not:

> These included BOTSAT-1, 26 satellites as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission, and a trio of CubeSats for NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission; Arvaker 1, the first microsatellite for Kongsberg NanoAvionics’ N3X constellation.

A lot, but I do take your point.

It is not our only space venture. Our universities are churning out aerospace engineers. It annoys STEM academics that the space industries keeps "poaching" the best grad students.

To the best of my knowledge, the company is not a strategic priority for New Zealand, we do not absolutely need to launch our own satellites. It is purely a commercial venture. They had no choice but to make it a joint effort.

If it was not a joint effort they would have far fewer customers and a extremely limited supply chain.

Quite a while ago when I met an MP who seemed interested in space. I asked if anything could be done to keep/inceltivize future space ventures fully on-shore. They shrugged their shoulders and said no.

Your quote actually proves the previous posters claims that Botswana can’t keep power up on a consistent basis. If you go to the Botswana Power Corporations Twitter page, you get the daily schedule for what areas are going to have their power shot off because they’re unable to meet demand.

It’s great that they’re making improvements in this are and that they’re not as bad as South Africa (assuming your claim is accurate, I haven’t compared the two). But the previous poster’s claim that power can’t be kept up on a consistent basis is accurate.

Yeah, and that's exactly what makes the title into clickbait.

"BOTSAT-1 is a 3U hyperspectral Earth Observation satellite"

3U is a cubesat size, the most common one.

You can tell it's a cubesat from the picture in the article, and even better from the picture linked at "collaboration with EnduroSat". https://www.endurosat.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BotSat-...

It’s because hackernews rate limits users just because someone else downvoted you

So you actually can’t finish the conversation when it has the utility to finish it

> Botswana is a stable democracy, with a pretty good HDI.

Why so much negativity under this post? This is a positive in terms of global scientific and technological progress.

I think it’s awesome that more People are bringing their talents to satellite engineering.

Building rockets as cheaply as they did is the impressive part.

The EU can certainly throw money at the problem but that doesn’t necessarily manifest cheap rockets. It’s a product of leadership and culture. My experience with the EU is one of a top heavy bureaucracy that’s not overly conducive to this type of cowboy rocketry. Consider the absence of an EU version of Silicon Valley, it’s just computers and with the internet people can program from anywhere…

Surprisingly close to the plot of an episode of 90s cheesy British techno-thriller "Bugs":

Part 1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0533567 Part 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0533529

Probably less sabotage and space laser weapons in the real thing.

The USA has almost a million homeless people, no practical healthcare system for its population, yet spends humongous amounts on its military industrial complex every year. You can do many things at a time. Technology can actually solve the hunger problem by making their agriculture more efficient. Also these local engineers who worked on this will go on and do great things for their country down the line.

This is exactly why I do it

Zimbabwe did the same thing a few years back. The satellite eventually got lost in space.

Didn't the USA basically use German tech to launch their first space rockets?

So many strong opinions here from commenters who aren’t actually from Botswana. Let me tell you how we actually feel about it here.

We think it’s awesome! The establishment of a university of science and technology in Botswana has been a long hard road, and many mistakes have been made along the way. But the fact that Botswana now has the local skill to deploy a satellite and make use of the data it provides to inform decisions blows my mind.

I grew up in the village that now hosts the university. We were so isolated back then that I’d listen to the Voice of America and marvel at the things that were being done in the developed world, and wonder if we would ever be able to participate in that level. The fact that a smart kid can grow up to attend a local university and end up launching a SATELLITE INTO SPACE is incredible!

Congratulations!

> Don’t want to belittle the achievement but (...)

Yeah, but you kind of are.

> (...) they launched it as in „had it launched by the commercial launch provider SpaceX“, not on a self-developed rocket as it sounds like on the first read.

Yes, it's the kind of thing that even NASA does nowadays.

Cool feat by Botswana. Outstanding.

> Imagine you're having an in-person conversation with someone in a crowded restaurant.

You're not in a crowded restaurant chatting with someone. You're in an online forum broadcasting messages to the vast nothingness.

Congratulations! And thank you for sharing an informed perspective (maybe the only one in this discussion!). As you know, Botswana is also one of Africa's leading democracies.

But why does it tire you that Botswana created a satellite, whatever other struggles they may have aside? What's your connection to Botswana?

Is NZ possibly the worst country to launch from (due to geography and geometry)?

Yes, I know you can launch from other locations, and my question is more of a curiosity.

Absolutely fantastic!! I love Botswana. I spent quite a lot of time in Gaborone for work. Growing up my home town was 80 kilometres from the Botswana border and we regularly visited friends there. I am so happy to see this news. Botswana has a special place in my heart. Well done Botswana! I can’t wait to see what else comes next.

From 1 highschool program in 2006 (TJ3SAT) there's now over 50 high scool programs launching cubesat style satellites. Some use base kits, making the launch even easier. Sure, it's amazing they have a bootstrapping engineering community in Botswana, but this isn't more sophisticated than a high school program with money to pay for the ride up.

To compare what NASA does to this seems like a soft discrimination of low expectations, which is so common when referring to developing countries.

Along similar lines, Guatemala launched it's first satellite QUETZAL-1. It was in space for 211 days. While the technology isn't groundbreaking compared to satellites built by developed countries, it's massive in terms of inspiring future STEM students. Brain drain is a real problem. Providing pathways to scientific careers in smaller countries is objectively a Good Thing.

https://www.uvg.edu.gt/cubesat-en/

> From 1 highschool program in 2006 (TJ3SAT) there's now over 50 high scool programs launching cubesat style satellites. Some use base kits, making the launch even easier. Sure, it's amazing they have a bootstrapping engineering community in Botswana, but this isn't more sophisticated than a high school program with money to pay for the ride up.

I think you're trying very hard to grasp at straws to belittle a whole country, while being completely oblivious to the domain.

For reference, Ireland launched its first satellite on 2023. Does this give you the right to shit on Ireland's achievement?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_satellites_by_co...

I'm very glad to hear about your experience, it also touches on something deeply human when we can elevate ourselves and reach for the sky =)

This isn't twitter. You're in a highly moderated forum in which both moderator and participants are bound by rule and custom to maintain civil behavior, in the best interest of everyone involved.

Even if you weren't, you should still act as if you were in a crowded restaurant. Without agreeing to conventions for how a conversation should be conducted, you can't have any productive conversation at all. So what would be the point? If you ever sense that you're in an online forum broadcasting messages to the vast nothingness then you are truly only wasting your own time. (Which is why this is the only site I ever post on). At that point, just stop, put it down, walk outside and engage in any kind of real interaction you can find.

It's certainly not the worst, since it has plenty of empty ocean to the east and west. A necessity for kind of safe launches. Of course a location closer to the equator would be nice, but it could be worse.

Just remember that the best place the EU came up with is in south America. Places like mainland Netherlands probably qualify for the worst places to launch orbital rockets from.

That's funny. Go read up about cubesats friend.

> This isn't twitter. You're in a highly moderated forum in which both moderator and participants are bound by rule and custom to maintain civil behavior, in the best interest of everyone involved.

You're trying to make a storm in a teacup. OP literally edited his post to clearly state its fine if anyone interprete something differently. This is hardly outrage bait.

Try to direct your energy to something worth your time. Loudly complaining about vague subjective notions of netiquette in a moderated forum is certainly not it.

Don't worry too much about negative opinions, there is usually a strong bias against non-US projects in the English speaking web.

A common trick is to have an office in USA and make it hard to figure out where's your project actually based. There's usually some sympathy for the British and Israeli, then you get some envy for the Russian and Japanese based stuff if they are doing something authentic or feeds into the stereotypes. Lastly you can get sympathy based on current culture war or political talking points(EU lately gets some sympathy and heat for being not-Trump for example). They will deny it but it is true, if you read the English-only web you will get the impression that no one outside the US does anything innovative and the rest of the world just lives lives of a caricature.

The last few years many people were involved in fintech assuming that outside the US consumer banking must be horrible or non-existent if its that bad the USA. Many got investment in blockchain BS that will bring banking and online payments to Africa or Asia or something, only to fail once they realized that in many of those places that tech was much more developed and widely used than the US!

No wonder the negativity when you mention Botswana :) You should pair it with something to create a story. Maybe start a Bitcoin national reserves or make Firefox the default browser on government computers, anything that a group of people have opinions(if Botswana is taking on tech giants and launching a satellite, some people will be rooting for Botswana and will write how the company they hate is finished thanks to the Botswana's satellite). Even better if you can incorporate something hot like AI, from an underdog like Anthropic ideally.

Small? Not at all.

Google tells me:

    Botswana, with an area of 581,730 square kilometers, is roughly the size of France or Texas, and slightly larger than the combined area of the UK and Ireland.

With the current generation of HIV drugs, most of those women should live into their 60s (at least). Also, the latest generation can get HIV virus counts to below testable densities. I expect their HIV issues to be resolved over the next 30-50 years, where the number of new cases will fall dramatically, and almost no one will die from AIDS-related causes.

Probably because people are annoyed that "launching satellites" is portrayed as a major feat (as it once was), when nowadays launching a CubeSat is not that impressive.

Botswana is one of the few countries that focused little on revenge politics, and they are a shining example of forgiveness and tolerance (relatively speaking, they do have problems - as does every place on Earth). South Africa was doing well, but sadly Mandela couldn't stay in power forever. Africa isn't the only place where you see it, why we've just witnessed a cousin of that political style come into power in a country that has significantly further to fall. They even started with spending money and bureaucracy on renaming places, which is my personal canary.

Source: Zimbabwean-South African-American

How does a country move out of poverty without engineering and education? If Botswana had a moon program or its own rocket program, I could see the argument, but launching a small sat. Doesn't seem that wrong.

> outside the US consumer banking must be horrible or non-existent if its that bad the USA

When I read about US consumer banking ("cashing" cheques like its 1975, all kinds of ATM fees, credit scores and having to use weird "you are not really sending money real time but because the app you are sending the payment instruction through is legit you can sort of be assured the money will be paid eventually") and then look at the European payments landscape...I feel happy.

It is a bit baffling how the US is so far behind on basically everything when it comes to money, banking and payments. I'm not sure many American's even realise how god awful their setup is.

The world - good and bad, becomes invisible though behind the culture war cliches. They tell you alot about the participants- very little about the world as it is.

Great to hear the positive note. There was a lot of armchair commentary when India launched its space program and got its satellites in orbit. And your disregard for those voices is exactly how I felt when it happened here in India. Congratulations to Botswana!

Very good to hear!

I have never been there (I grew up in Africa), but I have always been told that Botswana is one of the more stable nations in Africa (I grew up in … less stable … nations).

Africa has amazing amounts of natural resources, and the most energetic, passionate, people I’ve ever known.

Okay, so a random American internet user has displayed his ignorance of the rest of the world.

And the arrogance in this comment? Off the charts, to say the least.

A sign of the times, perhaps.

Don't blame them for the assumption based on 450 years with the mercator projection that makes USA and European nations look bigger than they are and African nations look smaller than they are.

Congratulations on the successful launch!

> .. I’d listen to the Voice of America..

I grew up listening to VoA as a kid as well, I was born in a then not so developed part of the Balkans. Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours.

Zelle works well enough for doing small (eg: only a few thousand dollars or less) instant transfers for free, and ACH works well enough for large transfers.

Our banking ecosystem is extremely fragmented with thousands of small banks and credit unions, we aren't like Canada where the 5 largest banks control nearly the entire market and can change things relatively quickly.

I wish you all the best brother. May your country be heaven for you, your family and your community. Keep up the progress!

Yours, a friend from another developing country

It depends on what orbit you want. Due to the latitude you'll end up pretty inclined by default - which is bad for equatorial orbits sure, but a good start for polar ones. At a public session I went to several years back they spoke of specifically trying to attract polar launches for that reason.

As a counterpoint, there are nearly 4,000 banks operating in the Eurozone. In 2017 a scheme was mandated by the European Central Bank for Instant Payments (actual funds moved between banks within 20 seconds) which currently most banks support, all banks can receive and which by October this year all banks must be able to send out.

It is possible in the US. But somehow it's not happening.

"Try to direct your energy to something worth your time. Loudly complaining about vague subjective notions of netiquette in a moderated forum is certainly not it."

Maybe try not to tell other people what is important for them? That is part of the same debate, how we communicate and to me it also matters a lot.

I think of it as second mover advantage. The US basically has the first system that worked. And in terms of the expectations of the 1960s, it works really well. But, because it works “good enough” there is very little incentive to make it work better… or to the level of “better” in 21st century terms. And because we’ve lived with this system for so long, all of the fees and charges have largely been internalized, so we don’t question their existence.

> You could say this as well about significant parts of Appalachia in the US and other impoverished regions of the US

And the reaction here if say West Virginia launched a satellite would be the same: why are you wasting money doing this when <some statistic about widespread poor infrastructure and poverty>.

I've had a soft spot for Botswana ever since I read The Cry of the Kalahari. Go BOTSAT-1!

Those in government right now certainly don't, or they don't care.

I'm not sure that's a good excuse. Most Western European nations adopted the same systems shortly afterwards, and had the same type of legacy (cheques, fees all over the place, slow transfers)... But they haven't stopped there and have kept innovating and modernising. A big part of the innovation, which many Americans will hate to hear, has been enforced by the EU. Fast (seconds) and free transfers, as well as low card transaction fees have all been forced by EU laws and regulations. The banks would without a doubt prefer to be making more money from those things, but nobody is asking them.

Don't forget that Instant Payments are free.

>Let me tell you how we actually feel about it here.

Can we have the opinion not from some privileged elites, but of the oppressed majority, who are literally starving to involuntarily under threat of execution finance all this support projects for this disgusting government?

When USSR launched the world's first satellite into space, the enthusiasm was universal. Even among its peasants who at the time were paperless indentured servants.

But with a population of 2.7 million. That is the more relevant factor here, and by this metric they're on the side of tiny.

And that makes their ability to develop a functioning satellite that integrates into a launch vehicle all the more impressive! Kudos to Botswana's engineers.

Can we maybe not shit on this parade? The number of non-disgusting governments world in space-capable nations currently sits at zero. It doesn't detract from this achievement, and people are right to celebrate it.

Botswana is a democracy with a higher democracy index (7.63) than some European countries. Even close to USA (7.85). [1]

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu

The first system that worked? I have no idea what you're talking about. Whatever system US banks have, they weren't first, and it barely works. I mean Credit Cards are mostly an American invention, sure. But you've been lagging behind on chip&pin and contactleas payments for decades. Even something as simple as a secure bank transfer is a chore over there. I remember asking an American for their account number so I could pay them, years ago, and they assumed I would use it to rob them. Primitive nonsense.

Your banks are robbing you, and no one seems to care.

Terms and conditions apply there.

Where "those in government" is "Trump, Musk, and their minions", yep.

The actual bureaucrats are mostly pissed off.

Really? The rate limit must be pretty generous, because I've never hit it, and I've had a few comments downvoted heavily.

Users get rate limited because their account is new, or as you alluded to, they're not productively adding to the conversation (as evidenced by vote ratio at least).

It seems like the system working as designed, to be honest.

>Even among its peasants

No, it wasn't. This is Soviet propaganda, that existed only because people who expressed different opinions were killed. As far as I understand, the situation in Botswana is much better when it comes to expressing one's opinion. So I am interested in what they think about this issue.

>The number of non-disgusting governments world in space-capable nations currently sits at zero.

You are now trivializing institutionalized mass oppression. We're talking about a country where HALF THE POPULATION IS STARVING RIGHT NOW.

Do you see signs of Africa undergoing the developmental transformation we’ve seen in past decades in places like China and Vietnam? I’ve been expecting it for a while.

You misunderstand. It's not specific to Botswana. Just that type of country.

I think you might be trivialising the scale on which space-capable nations are causing suffering. But that's not the point. The point is that this is neither the time nor place for party pooping.

Like what?

Well, scoped to just Botswana, when my dad was 10, in the 60's, we had just 15km of tar road in the whole country.

In the 80's when we moved to the village I grew up in, we didn't have a phone - we had a telegraph address.

In the 90's, to get fresh fruit and cheese, we would drive for 3 hours across sand roads to another country to shop at a supermarket.

In 1998 my village got its first chain restaurant and it was a big deal.

In 2009 I tried to modernise the family business by getting our managers to use email and very few of them could navigate the internet. In 2012, my family's vegetable farming plot was one of many that were claimed by the government to start the BIUST and I couldn't fathom how they would staff it.

And in 2025, the BIUST launched a satellite.

Lots of problems, but certainly progress.

That's what they were saying. America had the first credit cards and therefore had trouble moving to chip & pin partly because the existing system worked without it.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Until the mid 2000s, if you good good enough grades at _any_ high school in the country, the government would foot the entire bill (tuition, board, stipend) to send you to a foreign university for the entirety of your degree. The only requirement was that you returned to Botswana to work back your tuition cost. Probably hundreds of thousands (and that's a lot in a country of 2 million people) of people benefited from this program.

Is it perfect? No. Do citizens have the same opportunities as an average person from an OECD country? Not even close. But you have to appreciate the incredibly low base Botswana started from, and how the government has spent the entirety of its existence ploughing resources into improving the human capital of its citizens.

Isn’t that the fate of all satellites?

My father/grandfather were avid fans of international broadcasts. VoA, Radio Nippon, Deutsche Weller, BBC. By our childhood, TV came with 2 channels and in adolescence 60. My son has access to YouTube, Netflix...

>But the fact that Botswana now has the local skill to deploy a satellite

Congrats, but the article says that the satellite is being deployed by SpaceX.

I am Polish; I didn't grew up during period of Communist occupation, but I've certainly heard of stories of people risking their wellbeing via trying to listen to VoA. It was very much a big crime.

> Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours.

It's not a feeling. They don't know because domestic broadcasts of VoA were prohibited by federal law.

You would not have been killed in Khrustchev times for expressing a dissatisfaction with the space programme, even though it certainly deviated from the party line. Perhaps it's worth considering that what people find inspiring does not necessarily reflect their material condition: humans are complex creatures.

Well a lot of them get lost in the atmosphere

Are you interested in their opinion when you instantly dismiss one?

Radio Wolna Europa was the one that my parents and grandparents listened to more often in communist Poland.

I had colleagues who worked in Botswana and they said it was the nicest location of any of our clients - which included London, Boston, Singapore, etc.

I got landed with Nairobi which was horrible (at least in terms of my work).

I think some people think all African countries are the same.

Not every bank supports it yet, and it's not always free. Some offer a limited number of free instant payments. One of my banks charged 1eur per instant payment up until recently. I understand the situation is improving, however.

I honestly doubt.

Vietnam and China have very stable (albeit dictatures) governments that invest heavily in education and infrastructure.

Most of Africa, except some places like Botswana is very unstable politically. Plenty of conflicts, insane corruption levels.

Sometimes I struggle understanding HN. I did not share an opinion. Simply stated two events that were a matter of fact. Yet someone I am being downvoted for this.

1. Zimbabwe did the same thing a few years back. Source: https://itweb.africa/content/dgp45qaBBQevX9l8

2. The satellite eventually got lost in space. Source: https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/zimsat-1

Don't you feel silly for commenting on things that you know nothing about?

Botswana is one of the most developed countries in the world on many aspects like democracy, press and political freedom or gender equality.

I'm from the former communist block and let me tell you: you have no idea what are you talking about. Zero, none.

You seem to be regurgitating stereotypes.

> Don’t want to belittle the achievement

You literally did.

> as it sounds like on the first read

That's your interpretation, the title literally says: "Botswana launches first satellite BOTSAT-1 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 "

> One of my banks charged 1eur per instant payment up until recently

Illegal since 1 January, which is why they stopped. Hence why I'm saying it's free.

As for not all banks supporting it, if I'm not mistaken it will be mandatory by the end of the year, and the majority already do.

That makes no sense. The rest of the world also had the existing systems and moved on relatively quickly.

The issue is that the US banking system is highly fragmented, making universal change difficult. Most other countries have fewer, larger banks (which does introduce other problems that regulation has to be active with), but it means that they can gather together and agree on standards far quicker. Most other countries also have more active regulation pushing universal standards than the US historically did.

Titles on HN often get updated

As an American, I literally have no idea what Voice of America is.

> Your banks are robbing you, and no one seems to care.

Actually I think they do care. That's why they are still using paper checks, because those are processed for free :)

It's America's state-sponsored propaganda network. It wasn't even allowed to broadcast to Americans until last decade. Despite the label, it's been a pretty good source, though admittedly with a pro-US bias. Now it looks like it's been DOGEd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...

It is americas foreign propoganda program. is was intentionally made hard for americans to listen to. That it was hard to get at meant the types of people who want to control government propoganda didn't care and so it turned out to be a reasonable source of low bias information.

Until very recently I worked for an international remittances company. It's remarkable how far behind the U.S. is, and I always tell people the first countries to go (mostly) cashless with mobile wallets are in East Africa... e.g. Kenya had a ton of people using MPesa long before many European/North American/Asian countries had anything analogous.

Until 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...

What do you think NHK is? Same thing but Japanese? It seems cool like people fishing for Ayu.

You are way out of date on what the us is like. Chips are all anyone uses in the us. I write about 2 checks a year.

not that it makes a difference - us law puts the liability on banks. Chip and pin is needed in backwards places where a stolen credit card is the consumers problem. It adds no security to the individual in the us. When banks decided to care chips got rolled out. They don't think pin is useful enough to be worth the hasstle so we don't have the.

The threshold gets more sensitive if other users have ever flagged you before and there’s seemingly no way to make the threshold less sensitive without mod intervention

so entire accounts can get brigaded in an opaque system that we never know is updated or not

its overfitting.

its like how people within the US thinks the system works because we’ve never had a military coup, instead of looking at how the system hasnt worked

Africa is not a country. Some countries in Africa are doing much better than others. Some are the stereotype of a new revolution every few years bringing in a new corruption. Some are stable and growing.

You should be proud. I am happy to see this achievement. I hope it inspires more people in Botswana to pursue engineering. Thank you for sharing.

Probably because of the original clickbait title, which seems to have been changed by the mods to be more accurate.

It was from a university.

> EIRSAT-1 (Educational Irish Research Satellite-1) is a European Space Agency-sponsored 2U CubeSat developed and built by University College Dublin

> The mission of EIRSAT-1 is to advance education in space science and engineering across the whole island of Ireland through collaboration between student teams, higher education institutions and high-tech companies.

Actually it looks like most of the first national satellites listed are operated by colleges and universities, not high schools.

Yes because most high schools with money to hitch a ride with spacex are in the USA. So they aren't first launches, which is besides the point. The point is that launching a cubesat is nowhere near the complexity that NASA (or any other real space program) operates at, and it's actually at the level of a US rich high school. This is no detriment to anyone, it's just what it is. I'd say with enough money for the spacex ticket any "tech maker" youtuber has enough sophistication to launch a cubesat too. Also I never mentioned the satellite you reference.

See, wasn’t it easy to clarify your point?

Roscosmos is dead to international commercial partners, but are still putting a great deal into space. Third place behind SpaceX and China.

Could get that on cable in Ireland, i remember just leaving it on because it was just relaxing to listen to.

With adherence to the drug regimen the current prognosis is even better than that at 75 years of life expectancy. The problem is adherence to the regimen is hard and lack of adherence means you’re a potential spreader again. That being said I believe Botswana has 90%+ of its hiv positive population on ART drugs.

I wonder when the first satellite was launched from Africa.

Perhaps the Italian San Marco 1 satellite, launched from Kenya in 1964?

I don't understand why cashless is a goal. You want DOGE to be able to control who you're allowed to pay, directly? And Trump Admin tracks every transaction?

I understand that w bills with serial numbers, cash is also trackable, but there's something deeply authoritarian about monetary systems predicated on a fiat currency with no physical representation.

Going to have to start buying little bags of silver coins with which to effect personal trade

just ten years in the gulag archipelago I guess lol, not death!

> I’d listen to the Voice of America and marvel at the things that were being done in the developed world,

This is extra sad because the Trump administration has just killed Voice of America. Possibly fitting because this administration is also doing its best to eliminate the US being part of the "developed world".

You are buying Soviet propaganda. Just an example of what what happening in Khrustchev times for expressing a dissatisfaction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novocherkassk_massacre

Together with "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty" - it was the main source of information not controlled by the party for people behind the iron curtain.

Radio Liberty was employing variety of native journalists living abroad but with the intention to talk about their native countries and cultures.

The amount of influence it had on the generation is hard to overestimate. It was also shut down recently by the DOGE.

In my town (in Czechoslovakia), of the people of my generation, only those who listened to the BBC or VoA knew who the Vaclav Havel was, who became the first president after the fall of communism. I can't imagine the chaos that would happen if no one had any true information at the time of the fall of communism.

Trump has defunded VoA. >https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o

Good luck to anyone in a shitty regime that thought they could at least rely on American propaganda to get some useful info from an alternative. Despite VoA being cheap and enormously effective, and being something no Americans care about, he still kills it.

Gee, I wonder who benefits most from VoA dying?

>I'm not sure many American's even realise how god awful their setup is.

The vast majority of average americans don't leave the town/city/area they grew up in. They have NO CLUE what the world is like, other than what they glean from hollywood, and "American exceptionalism" is an absurdly effective propaganda campaign.

> I did not share an opinion. Simply stated two events that were a matter of fact. Yet someone I am being downvoted for this.

If you're completely avoiding any opinions or implications, then a fact about another country lacks relevance to the article. And comments lacking relevance generally get a downvote.

The old slow way of doing things is deeply embedded in the organizational DNA of Arianespace (and ULA.). It would actually be easier for a brand new company to do it than one of these legacy behemoths (particularly Arianespace, which is dragged down by the international way in which they build.)

Arianespace is so thoroughly broken that they genuinely believed that reusability, if they could even accomplish it, would be bad for their business because it would reduce the number of rockets they build. Bonkers.

Blame HN for having systems, rules, and filters to prevent long comment threads between two people. It's probably for the best as HN doesn't have the best interface for "two people chat back and forth for three days" but even if it isn't the optimum system, we as commenters are utterly powerless to change it.

I think the Europeans want to live in a society, have a good life and want all this to be coordinated by a common entity - the government. It’s also socially acceptable to take down the government you really don’t like. Be it by force or political means, government in Europe come and go all the time.

Another thing is, Europe tends to have parliamentary democracies, so if your party loses an election it doesn’t mean it’s all over, it means you your say is smaller but still relevant.

So in Europe governments are politically inefficient but the state is usually alright, it keeps working regardless of the political situation. There are instances where there’s is no president or government for years.

Anyway, if you hate your government that much or don’t trust it that much why don’t you fix it instead of making your life hard?

> And that makes their ability to develop a functioning satellite that integrates into a launch vehicle all the more impressive! Kudos to Botswana's engineers.

I'd like to say that but I don't think it's accurate. Endurosat handled at least the baseline functionality and launch vehicle integration.

As an American, I wonder how you don't know.

And therefore I am guessing it was more obvious pre Gorbachev/Reagan era.

Hi, I've been here almost a decade and have over 10k Karma. I am not allowed to post more than 4ish comments per several hour period.

It is not an automated system. I was punished years after creating my account, and after accumulating strong positive karma. It only took like one flagged comment for the punishment to be put in place, imo it was not a significantly out there comment or set of comments either, and it is now years old and it's pretty obvious these punishments have no automatic expiry or re-evaluating date.

This is despite plenty of other members of the community posting about 10x the amount I was at the time with zero repercussions, and despite the fact that I've gotten only a couple gentle warnings in particularly heated topics, which I demonstrably took to heart.

There is no justice or fairness inherent in HNs systems, and assuming so by default is less than great. The team is tiny, the rules are most likely set in stone from the early 2000s, the tooling is basically just whatever they can cobble together, the rules are purposely opaque, and Dang is a mere mortal full of his own biases and experiences that are impossible to fully prevent from affecting his decisions. I think he puts genuine effort into his work, and despite the occasional complaint I'd give him probably a B+ or better, but there are probably hundreds of HN commentators who were given a punishment, hopefully for good reason but don't take that for granted, literally reformed or just changed over time, and nobody even informed them they were punished or COULD have that punishment removed.

I have not emailed dang to get the punishment lifted because sometimes the limit is helpful to limit how distracted I am at work. Other times it completely prevents me from doing the exact kind of useful and productive conversation that HN insists it wants.

I grew up in Soviet Union and have a pretty solid idea what you could and what you could not say, but thanks for trivia.

A life anecdote: in mid 1980s my classmate shot the Lenin portrait in the classroom through a straw. His parents were called in and reprimanded. In 1950s they'd been in real trouble; in 1937 they would have been arrested, tortured and likely killed. In 1989 nobody would have cared.

GULag system was disbanded by same Khrushchev in favor of traditional prisons.

Money doesn't change hands for Russia launching astronauts or NASA launching cosmonauts. They're basically bartering for the sake of knowing the station will be manned even if one side gets grounded.

I might have been mistaken on that one, I'll fully admit. I am not sure if it was Głos Ameryki or Radio Wolna Europa - but my comment applies to both of them, anyway.

Its not clear which is hard, yet there are hundreds in the comments pointing it out.

'that type of country' is wrong to spend any money on a space program, is the root of your argument? Just to be clear?

It's not clear from the original bad phrasing.

"Money doesn't change hands for Russia launching astronauts or NASA launching cosmonauts"

did you see my parent comment or not??? I am not trying to question their ability for them get to space, it doesn't matter if you CAN go to space but you didn't have money for it

its clear that NASA and Roscosmos collaboration days is numbered and would not continue in the future because geo politic

The difference is that public broadcasters like NHK, BBC etc are usually set up to be nominally independent from the government, usually through a license fee enforced separate from taxes.

How is it a better start for polar orbits than any other launch site on Earth?

Out of curiosity, why VOA and not the BBC or something else?

Also there is/was Radio Free Asia.

Not the OP, and not sure why its particularly suited for polar, but its a good location for these reasons:

1. Good atmospheric conditions. 2. Low air traffic. 3. Low/flexible/favourable regulations. 4. Good locations for ground infrastructure (in part because of 1. and also because everywhere is by the sea). 5. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, tertiary education geared to support the industry.

Also, and I don't know for sure this is a factor, but we have a number of specialised industries such as building large things from carbon composite (yachts) and radio communications for example.

I think option 3. is a big one. The govt. attitude is usually "give it a go", rather than a default "no".

Thanks. How big a factor is it that you aren't circling Earth's axis as quickly as most other places, and thus launches lose some boost? That's what I was wondering originally.

>aspects like democracy, press and political freedom or gender equality

We are literally talking about country, where half the population are starving and 10 percent of children are DYING. But yeah, girls are dying not worse than boys, so amazing gender equality, best place on the Earth. All you need to know about fascists and their statistics.

And what place they are holding on starvation index and children mortality rate?

You're overstating the severity somewhat .. severe food insecurity is not starvation level food shortages, and 3.8 percent is less than 10 percent.

  At national level 53.29 percent of the population in Botswana was affected by moderate or severe food insecurity in 2021/22

  Moderate or severe Food insecurity occurs when a person or household has limited or uncertain access to sufficient and healthy food because of financial limitations or other constraints.

  As a result of financial or other constraints, people may have to compromise on the quality and quantity of their diets, but they do not necessarily suffer from extreme hunger or starvation. 

~ https://statsbots.org.bw/sites/default/files/publications/PR...

* Under-five Mortality Rate: 38.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

and dropping steadily from 77.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 24 years ago

~ https://data.unicef.org/country/bwa/

The US credit card system is not highly fragmented - there are just 3 big players and maybe 2 smaller players. There are tons of banks but that's not an issue for chip and pin. Anyway Europe also has a fragmented bank landscape.

what is the best use of resources?

This reply is quite late, but I thought I’d answer it anyway. When I was a child, I enjoyed the VoA more than the BBC Africa service, and when I was a teen my preferences swapped. I had never really thought about why before. And I had never really clicked that the VoA was a propaganda tool.

My best answer is that listening to the VoA as a kid was just way more fun than the BBC. And maybe it being propaganda was a big reason for that. Stories were simple, there were good guys and bad guys, science was awesome and we might make it to Mars by the year 2000.

As I got older, I started to see that things weren’t so simple, I wanted unbiased, or at least balanced, reporting about the region I lived in, and then BBC Africa took over.