Algeria Launches Second Satellite in Two Weeks, Expands to Largest Fleet in North Africa
Takeaway
Algeria's expansion of sovereign satellite infrastructure creates potential demand for ground station equipment, geospatial analytics services, and satellite data processing. The planned telecom satellite could reduce Algeria's spending on leased foreign bandwidth and shift market dynamics in North African satellite services. Companies operating in Algeria should expect improved government mapping and resource monitoring data.
Algeria launched its ALSAT-3B Earth observation satellite on a Chinese Long March 2C rocket from Jiuquan on February 2, fourteen days after ALSAT-3A entered orbit on January 15. With these two additions, Algeria now operates the largest national satellite fleet in North Africa.
2
Satellites launched
in 14 days
6+
Total fleet size
largest in North Africa
Source: Space in Africa
Both satellites were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under a bilateral cooperation agreement. They are designed for high-resolution Earth observation, supporting geological surveying, agricultural monitoring, land-use planning, and disaster response.
The 14-day gap between launches is unusually fast for a developing-nation space program. Most comparable programs operate on timelines of months or years between successive launches. The pace suggests that Algeria's space agency, ASAL, has built sufficient planning and integration capacity to manage concurrent satellite campaigns.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa by land area, covering 2.4 million square kilometers. Much of the territory is remote desert where ground-based monitoring is expensive and slow. Satellite imagery allows more efficient tracking of oil and gas infrastructure, mineral resources, water tables, and agricultural land use.
ASAL has announced plans for additional launches in late 2026, including a telecommunications satellite. Algeria currently leases satellite bandwidth from foreign operators for telecommunications services. A domestic telecom satellite would reduce that dependence and the associated costs.
Sovereign satellite capability also provides independent Earth observation and surveillance capacity. Algeria would no longer need to rely on commercial imagery providers or partner governments for high-resolution coverage of its territory and border regions.