Ghana and US to Launch Space Satellite

Ms Kathryn Dee Robinson, US Ambassador to Ghana on Monday said the United States Armed Forces and their Ghanaian counterparts are collaborating to launch a space satellite on May 19.

She has therefore called on the scientific community to help monitor the launch, whose second stage would be observed off the coast of Ghana.

Ms Robinson made the appeal when she paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Prof. Dominic Fobih in Accra .

She said the Delta II rocket will be launched from Florida in the USA while the second and third stages will occur in space above a point, four degrees west of the equator, approximately 200 miles off the coast of Ghana.

" The US government is requesting the assistance of the Ghana Navy and the scientific community to help monitor the launch, especially in its sequential stages", she said.

Ambassador Robinson also appealed to Prof. Fobih to consider tackling environmental issues from the regional perspective.

"You need to collaborate with all the countries within the sub-region in tackling environmental issues such as desertification, environmental degradation and coastal erosion", she stressed.

Ms Robinson said her government is ready to help private enterprises in the area of tree cropping to reduce the effects of climate change and its consequences.

Prof. Fobih said although his ministry does not deal directly with the US Embassy, there are a lot of institutions under his ministry that continually receive support from the US government.

He mentioned the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as some of them. The minister called on the US to help sensitise Ghanaians on environmental issues and the concerns they raise for the world.

He said Ghana also needs US assistance to promote information technology at all levels of the country's development.