Shaba North was the launch site of the first rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

s launched by Orbital Transport und Raketen AktienGesellschaft, or Orbital Forwarding Company in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 ("OTRAG

OTRAG

OTRAG , was a German company based in Stuttgart, which planned in the late 1970s and early 1980s to develop an alternative propulsion system for rockets. OTRAG was the first commercial developer and producer of space launch vehicles...

"). It is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo at 8°00′S 28°30′E.

In 1977 and in 1978 three test flights of OTRAG rockets were launched from Shaba North.

In 1979 OTRAG stopped launching rockets from Shaba North for political reasons. Its launching activities were later moved to the Seba Oasis, Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

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