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.

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.

> 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.

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

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.

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