Challenge One aims to inaugurate a constellation of 30 space platforms that will provide a global Internet of Things (IoT)

Tunisia's first satellite will take off from Russia by the end of the year

photo_camera PHOTO/TASS-Alexander Scherbak - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Tunisia in early 2019 accelerated the space agreement between the two countries

The first Tunisian space station is not driven by the government but by private initiative. However, it was approved by the highest authorities of the republic, in particular by former President Béji Caïd Essebsi and also by the current President, Kais Saied, and his head of government, Elyès Fakhfakh. 

The platform that will inaugurate the arrival of the smallest nation in North Africa into space has become a reality thanks to the personal commitment of the entrepreneur Mohammed Frikha, the president and general manager of Telnet Holding, a Tunisian engineering multinational dedicated to the development and manufacture of electronic products for telecommunications, aeronautics, multimedia, energy and electronic banking.  

El ruso Alexander V. Serkin, presidente ejecutivo GK Launch Services, y Mohamed Frikha suscriben el contrato para el lanzamiento del Challenge One desde el cosmódromo de Baikonur

The launch of the so-called Challenge One is scheduled for November 15. It will travel aboard a Russian Soyuz 2 launcher, taking off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a huge space base now in the territory of the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, which Moscow has had no choice but to rent from the government of Astana.

Challenge One's production has been completed in the last couple of months and it was also tested in the country's capital to ensure its reliability. However, it has not yet been decided whether its mission will be focused on communications, Earth observation or technological tests, the latter being unlikely. What is certain is that it has required the contribution of the Russian space industry, which has been key in making the satellite a reality, and will be even more so in placing it in space. 

Both the Tunisian state's coffers and the potential of its technological capabilities are much more modest than those of its two formal neighbours, Algeria and Italy. These are the main reasons why the country's first space incursion will take the form of a Cubesat 3U, a type of nano-satellite barely 30 centimetres high, another 10 centimetres wide and weighing just over 3 kilos. 

El lanzador ruso Soyuz 2 será el encargado de colocar órbita al tunecino Challenge One, compañero de viaje del coreano CAS-500-1
More than just business cooperation

Closely linked to the political and military authorities of Tunisia, with subsidiaries in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Russia and the Union of Arab Emirates and with more than 600 engineers in their ranks, a group of Telnet technicians will travel in a few weeks to the headquarters of its subsidiary in Moscow to submit the small satellite to final tests prior to its launch into orbit.

The Challenge One project became a reality in 2018 and its path into space was cleared a year ago when Mohammed Frikha agreed with the senior managers of Russian companies Sputnix and GK Launch Services. Created in 2009, Sputnix is the first private company to manufacture electronic components, complete equipment to produce mini and nano satellites and earth stations for control and monitoring. Quite possibly, its Cubesat 3U named OrbiCraft-Pro has been modified by Telnet to build the Challenge One. By contrast, GK Launch Services is a launch service company authorised by the Russian Federal Space Agency to market Russian rockets privately. In the case of Tunisia, the modern Soyuz 2. 

The pact signed in June last year between the three partners in the Skolkovo Technology Park - a sort of Russian Silicon Valley located about 30 kilometres southwest of Moscow - envisages the implementation in Tunisia of an ambitious programme to boost the incipient Tunisian space sector by the hand of its two Russian partners. It involves creating a production line of electronic components for small satellites, accompanied by the construction of test laboratories and test benches. 

Un modelo a escala del nano satélite Challenge One preside el encuentro entre Vladislav Ivanenko, fundador y director de Sputnix y el emprendedor Mohamed Frikha, de Telnet
Difficult to deploy a constellation before 2023 

This goes hand in hand with the attempt to deploy in space a constellation of some thirty nanosatellites by 2023, dedicated to providing hundreds of applications related to the so-called Internet of Things, or IoT. But if the first one flies next November, getting another 29 into orbit in the next two years is not going to be easy.

However, all the above is on the way to becoming a reality if Mohammed Frikha continues to lead Telnet. A man of nearly 57 and a clear vision of the future, he is a telecommunications engineer with experience in private enterprise - he has worked in Thales, a multinational company - and he is the founder of Syphax Airlines who enjoys great popularity in the country's business circles. Mohammed Frikha has even become a candidate for the presidency of the government in the first democratic general elections at the end of 2014. But he was defeated by veteran politician Béji Caid Essebsi, who ruled the country until July 25, 2019, when he died at age 92 from chronic kidney failure. Today, one of Mohammed Frikha's messages is that Tunisia must be recognized in the world as "an example of an Arab and Muslim country where democracy and technology are valued".   

Rusia se ha comprometido a establecer las bases para que Túnez pueda volcar sobre el campo espacial una parte de su cadena de producción de componentes electrónicos para aeronaves

If the Challenge One project continues and the coronavirus pandemic does not affect the Russian space launch programme, the first Tunisian satellite will take off as a secondary cargo of the Soyuz 2 rocket, whose main mission is to put into orbit the South Korean observation platform CAS500-1, weighing about half a tonne. 

Although the Tunisian industry has no experience in the integration of satellites of any size or condition, it has more than 50 manufacturers of aeronautical equipment and structures that are part of the European supply chain, employing several thousand Tunisian qualified technicians. This being the case, some of the companies will not find it difficult to gain access to the still minimalist and embryonic Tunisian space sector.  

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