Sub-Sahara Africa, spokesman for Airbus, Linden Birns, on Tuesday said this workshop in Windhoek follows an agreement between NUST and Airbus in Feb. 2017 to collaborate in establishing a Virtual Space Data Centre, to be hosted by the university to assist the country in monitoring and growing key elements of its economy.
“Namibia is a key market for Airbus in Sub-Sahara Africa and this initial project is a starting point for a broader relationship with our partners at the NUST and the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, which will include other aerospace themes,” said Head of Airbus Defence and Space for Africa, Middle East, France and UK, Jean-Marc Nasr.
Meanwhile, the Namibian government has delegated NUST to host the country’s Institute for Space Technology and mandated it to implement the Virtual Space Data Centre as part of its strategic plan for developing the country’s aerospace, geo-information, earth observation and spatial science capabilities.
Airbus is a global leader in aerospace technology and geo-information with access to Earth observation satellite imagery and expertise and space data is widely used by governments, research institutes, businesses and various other organizations around the world in a number of fields.