Edward Makuka Nkoloso

Interviewed in 2016, President Kenneth Kaunda said of the space program that "It wasn't a real thing ... It was more for fun than anything else."

In 2014 Nkoloso was depicted in the film Nkoloso the Afronaut that was nominated at 2014 Uganda Film Festival. He and Matha also appear as characters in Namwali Serpell's novel The Old Drift, published in 2019.

A photograph book Afronauts commemorating the events was self-published by Cristina De Middel in 2012. The short independent documentary film titled Afronauts directed by Nuotama Bodomo was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

He received a law degree from the University of Zambia in 1983. He was awarded the Russian Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945". He also served as president of the Ndola Ex-servicemen's Association and was made an honorary army colonel. He died on 4 March 1989, and was buried with presidential honours.

He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Lusaka, Zambia, emphasising scientific advancement. He was appointed by President Kaunda to the Liberation Center, a movement for regional freedom. He championed government support for witch doctors on at least one occasion. He claimed that they should have a place beside physicians, and that they are an antidote for Christianity which had hurt Africa's medical skills, but states that he did not practice witchcraft himself. He retired in 1972.

The rocket, named D-Kalu 1 after President Kenneth Kaunda, was a 3-metre by 2-metre (10x6 ft) drum-shaped vessel. Nkoloso claimed that it was made of "space-worthy" aluminium and copper. The planned launch date was on Independence Day, 24 October 1964 and would take place from the Independence Stadium, but the launch was purportedly denied permission due to being inappropriate.

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.

He was drafted into the Northern Rhodesian Regiment forces in World War II, ultimately serving as a sergeant in the signal corp. After the war, he became translator for the Northern Rhodesian government. He was also a grade school teacher, and opened a new school, which was purportedly shut down by British authorities. He then joined the resistance movement. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1956 and 1957. Following his release, he was appointed as security official of United National Independence Party. In 1960, he founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy. In 1964, he participated in the Constitutional Convention.

Edward Festus Mukuka Nkoloso (1919-1989) was a member of the Zambian resistance movement and the founder of the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy.

Nkoloso was born in 1919, in the northern part of Northern Rhodesia. Some sources refer to him as "Edward Makuka Nkoloso".