Since the early 2000s, Congolese scientist Jean-Patrice Kika has been following with passion and enthusiasm a space program called the Troposphere, although the missiles he has launched so far have not achieved his goal of penetrating the troposphere at an altitude of between 8 and 15 km.

With this introduction, the French newspaper Le Monde paved the way for a report written by its special correspondent, Laure Brullard, in which he was introduced to this engineer who gained fame in his country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the Internet, by launching homemade missiles as part of his private and experimental space program.

"This is one of our old launch pads," Kika points to a rusting rocket atop a metal structure. "All my life I wanted to make the Congolese understand the importance of space research. It's a promising and inclusive field."

Nothing discourages him

Despite some frustration, the engineer, who lives in a country where armed groups are spread and half of its population does not get two dollars a day, says, "When I was young, I built gliders and radio transmitters, and my first missile was launched with matches."

Despite the faltering beginnings and the derision of those who see Kika as a mad scientist, and despite the huge lack of means, nothing discourages this engineer, who is increasingly obsessed with becoming the first African to launch a rocket into space.

The launch of the "Troposphere 1" missile in 2007 was a complete failure, but "Troposphere 2", whose body consists of powdered milk cans, achieved success, because it reached an altitude of 1500 meters, before "Troposphere 4" exceeded this range in 2008 despite its relatively heavy weight.

This rocket was wonderful, as Kika recalls, but the launch of "Troposphere 5" was another failure when it fell at a distance of 500 meters, which caused an uproar on the Internet and ridiculed Kika, who commented philosophically, "Science is success and failure."

And Kika stores the remains of all these prototypes in a sheet metal shed installed on the space he acquired to meet the needs of his self-financed company, and he and his team are now working on a more ambitious project to launch a 15-meter rocket that is supposed to reach a height of 200 km.

old dream

Despite the repeated postponement, Kika confirms that the "Troposphere 6" missile will be launched at the end of February 2023, with 3 payloads for different experiments on board.

The engineer gave up placing a mouse in it at the request of an animal rights organization, after killing a rodent in Troposphere 5.

A team of enthusiasts is working on the new rocket in a workshop at the Vocational Institute in La Gombe, Kinshasa. Among them are mechanics, airport employees and students who see Kika as a teacher and genius capable of shaping their dreams.

"It motivates me to put my knowledge into practice," says student Nestor Kibuka, 19. "We try to program the automatic separation of the different parts."

Kika's dream reminds of another dream in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by inviting its former president, Mobutu Sese Seko, to a German company to develop a "low-cost" space program on Zairean soil, so that his country would be the first African country to put a satellite into orbit, but that dream ended in failure after the missile deviated. It derailed soon after takeoff and crashed under the watchful eye of Mobutu, who quickly abandoned the program under pressure from Zaire's western allies.

Like the Congo, African countries tried to catch up with the space invasion, and South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco sent satellites into space, in order to draw maps, communications, border control, movements of armed groups, and others.