Company Signs Letter of Intent with GGPEN, Following Agreement with Senegal
LUANDA, JUNE 12 — Today, Symphony Space announced a series of milestone developments from the ANGOTIC Conference in Angola, where co-founder and CEO Merry Walker joined a panel convening space agencies from across the African continent to chart the future of space exploration and development on the continent. The annual ANGOTIC forum is the largest Information and Communication Technologies event in Angola. The international forum brings together government officials, telecom operators, academics, and tech startups to discuss digital transformation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space technologies across the continent.
As one of the panelists representing the growing ecosystem of space stakeholders in Africa, Walker engaged with heads and representatives of space agencies across the region in a high-level dialogue on what’s next for space in Africa — spanning satellite infrastructure, commercial partnerships, and embedding space capabilities into national development strategies.
“We are forging paths that will define what the future of the continent looks like for its youth,” said Walker. “Africa will be home to 40% the world’s youth by 2030, and this is an unprecedented opportunity for a generation of advancements from doers who are eager to make their mark on the world.”
Signing an LOI with GGPEN
On the sidelines of the conference, Symphony Space signed a Letter of Intent with GGPEN alongside Dr. Zolana Rui João, the founding General Manager of Angola’s National Space Program and the longest-serving space agency head on the African continent, having led GGPEN since 2014. Under his leadership, Angola has been transformed from a non-spacefaring nation into one of Africa’s top five space economies, now ranked alongside South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, and Nigeria. His tenure has produced landmark achievements including the launch of ANGOSAT-2 — Africa’s only government-owned high-throughput satellite — and the establishment of GEDAE, the continent’s first geodata center of its kind.
Dr. João also chairs the SADC Shared Satellite System, a groundbreaking initiative uniting 16 nations to develop Africa’s first jointly owned regional satellite. Angola’s space ambitions are backed by serious capital commitments. The country secured a $255 million loan for its ANGEO-1 Earth observation satellite— developed in collaboration with Airbus Defense and Space — with approximately 96.7% of its national space budget directed toward the program. The ANGEO-1 project, launched in March 2026, is designed to bolster national capabilities in environmental monitoring, agricultural planning, resource management, and disaster risk evaluation.
The LOI is more than a bilateral milestone. It is a deliberate stepping stone in Symphony Space’s broader strategy to deepen relationships with nations across the continent. Angola’s standing in the African space ecosystem, and the credibility of a partner like Dr. João, who built his country’s program from scratch, makes this agreement a powerful signal to other sovereign space actors watching closely. Symphony Space is not approaching Africa as a single market, but as a constellation of sovereign partners, each with distinct priorities and ambitions, and the company is prepared to meet them where they are.
“The LOI with GGPEN is a signal of what’s possible,” said Walker. “Every agreement we sign opens a door to the next conversation, the next partnership, the next nation ready to stake its claim in space. Africa’s space future will be built relationship by relationship, and we intend to be at every table.”
Building on the Senegal Agreement
The Angola engagement follows Symphony Space’s landmark agreement signed in Senegal in May, in which the company secured its first agreement to host a payload on the modular Adagio platform. The partnership was the first of its kind for Symphony Space in Africa and established a replicable model for sovereign payload hosting — enabling nations to access space infrastructure without the full capital burden of owning or operating satellites outright.
A Continent on the Rise
The momentum behind these partnerships reflects a broader continental shift. In 2026, African nations collectively allocated USD 828.37 million to space programs, up from USD 626.69 million in 2025, a historic 32.2% year-over-year increase that reflects growing efforts to embed space capabilities into broader economic and development strategies. This trajectory places the continent on course to surpass USD 1 billion in annual space investment by 2027. Symphony Space sees itself as a foundational partner in realizing that potential by offering scalable, modular infrastructure through the Adagio platform that allows African institutions to build toward sovereign space capability on their own terms and timelines.
About Symphony
Space Symphony Space is a U.S.-based aerospace startup dedicated to building the foundational infrastructure of the orbital economy. By providing reusable, modular platforms that handle the complexities of space operations, Symphony Space enables commercial, academic, and defense sectors to deploy technology faster and more cost-effectively than ever before. Symphony Space is unlocking space for all by providing a subscription-based “Space-as-a-Service” model that eliminates the need for costly hardware ownership. Symphony offers simplified, mission-agnostic platforms, allowing both tech and non-tech innovators to launch their missions as easily as deploying a cloud server.