Nigeria launches two satellites

Nigeria launched two observation satellites that could monitor Earth's weather in areas prone to natural disasters, officials said. The Wednesday launch was "another milestone in our nation's effort to solve national problems through space technology," Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said. Part of Nigeria lies in the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert, an area where extreme weather condition can bring droughts in the dry season and floods from devastating rainfall at other times, the BBC reported. The NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X spacecraft were built by Britain under contract from the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency. "NigeriaSat-2 will significantly boost African capabilities for remote sensing applications, specifically for natural resource management," NARSDA head S. O. Mohammed said. The two satellites were put into orbit by a Russian Dnepr rocket launched from southern Russia. Ground control stations in Guildford in Britain and Abuja in Nigeria are monitoring the satellites.