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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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".