When Nigeria launched the NigComSat-1 into space it was hailed as the country first steps into the space age. The $340m satellite built by the Chinese firm the Great Wall Industry Corporation was launched in Sichuan province in May 2007 and it launch was watched proudly by a delegation from Nigeria including the then Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Turner Isoun.

Fast forward to November 2008 and the promises of jobs and development in telecommunications to be brought about from the deployment of the satellite seem to have temporarily gone down a black hole. The drama started off with reports earlier this week that suggested that communication with the satellite was completely lost and fears arose that it might have spun out of its orbit.

However by Wednesday a Nigerian government official attributed the problem to a loss of power. Speaking in Abuja the Nigerian capital the Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Alhassan Zaku described the sequence of the problem “At about 4am yesterday (Tuesday), our engineers who are manning the ground station here in Abuja, noticed that the satellite in the orbit was not being recharged.”

He described the actions that were taken saying “Usually, this is supposed to happen via solar energy. Usually, when it is not being recharged it losses energy very fast. So when they noticed, they quickly reported to the managing director. About the same time, the station in China, of course the satellite was built and launched in China, noticed and also called to communicate what they have noticed but assured that they were working to see what they could do.”

The Minister said the satellite was now being ‘parked’ to avoid it drifting out of its orbit and causing collateral damage to other satellites. He assured customers of the satellite and Nigerians that the satellite was fully insured and the Chinese manufacturers will replace the satellite which was guaranteed for 15 years.