Zambia’s Laughable Space Program | Tales From the Bottle

The Zambian space program is worth a look for a few laughs - but does it hide a darker secret? “From 1960 until sometime after 1969, Nkoloso’s “space program“ sought to accomplish the launching of a rocket that would send 17-year-old Matha Mwambwa and two cats to the Moon. There were also plans for a trip to Mars. Nkoloso hoped to beat the United States and Soviet Union’s respective space programs at the height of the Space Race. To train the astronauts, Nkoloso set up a makeshift facility on an abandoned farm 11 kilometres (7 mi) from Lusaka, where the trainees would be rolled down a rough hill in a 200-litre (44 imp gal) oil drum. This, according to Nkoloso, would train them in the feeling of weightlessness in both space travel and re-entry. In addition, they used a tyre swing to simulate weightlessness. Nkoloso stated that the goals of the program were to establish a Christian ministry to “primitive“ Martians and the hope of Zambia becoming the “controller