I just built a new control center there, and we took a lot of security measures to prevent any collateral incidents. Jean-Patrice Keka recalls: The government has been supporting me morally and psychologically but they havenвЂ™t invested a dime so far. It will be launched on the same grounds I used before, a field I bought out of my own pocket in Menkao, about 60 kilometers from Kinshasa. I'd like my rocket to reach an altitude of two kilometers. If everything goes according to plan, it should be launched this spring. When is your next rocket-the Troposphere VI-going to get shot into space? However, they allowed me to travel to cities such as Paris and Washington so I could talk about my project to great authorities, which is a huge honor for me. The government has been supporting me morally and psychologically-but they havenвЂ™t invested a dime so far.

In 2009, the Congolese government promised to support your projects, which have always depended on private funding. The DRC, my country, has a rocket family, Troposphere, the Congolese Rocket Family established by Jean-Patrice Keka, also known as the African Eistein. Although this launch didnвЂ™t meet our expectations, this experiment was very valuable for our future tests. We put the rat in a cage along with several electronic devices in order to analyze its reactions, its cells, and its organ functions. I want to make African space tourism possible, and this is why I needed to observe an animalвЂ™s behavior at higher altitudes. Why the animal payload?ДЇrom now on, there will be a biological experiment with every rocket. There was a rat on this last rocket that died when the rocket crashed. The last one was supposed to reach 36 kilometers, but weirdly it deviated from its course. The first rocket reached 1,500 meters, and the second one went up to 15 kilometers. SoВ far, we've launched three experimental rockets. By then, I was able to build a rocket of my conception, so I founded my own company. Later on, I was contacted by the ISTA, which hired me as a research associate. At some point, I was contacted by the government-Mobutu was president at the time-and I was taken to the Ministry of Defense, where I met great military engineers who were willing to help me. While I was pursuing commercial studies, I would fill my notebooks with ideas and build rockets in my spare time. Of course, the scarce resources in Congo were discouraging. Jean-Patrice Keka Ohemba Okese: IвЂ™ve been really keen on science since childhood, although I was restricted to research for a long time. VICE: How did you get involved in space research? I gave him a call to hear how all of it was going. But Jean-Patrice is undaunted-DTA is hard at work on a space program called Galaxie that aims to put the first African satellites into orbit.

Unfortunately, the launch of the Troposphere V was a disaster-a combustion chamber exploded, the rocket swerved into the ground as soon as it left the earth, and the rat that had been placed inside the rocket for research purposes died a cruel death.

Jean patrice keka