Belarusian-Russian satellite tentatively scheduled for launch in 2025
15:45, 7 August
Photo: BelTA
A Belarusian-Russian satellite may be launched in 2025, BelTA learned from Sergei Zolotoi, Director of the R&D enterprise Geoinformation Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), chief designer of the Belarusian system for the remote sensing of Earth, during the Smart Belarus exhibition.
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Prime ministers of the Eurasian Economic Union member states approved a joint space program on 17 July. Among other things the program provides for creating an orbital constellation of satellites. The constellation is supposed to comprise five satellites, which will enable the accomplishment of virtually all kinds of remote Earth sensing goals. Plans have been made to make two Belarusian-Russian satellites with a super high resolution (0.35m) and three satellites with a 5-meter resolution that will be made by Kazakhstan. The program expects the first Belarusian-Russian satellite to be inserted into orbit in 2025. Headway will be made into launching the second satellite a bit later.
According to Sergei Zolotoi, the initial design of the Belarusian-Russian satellite is ready. “In essence the initial design is a rough outline of the technical solutions that will be implemented later on. The work has been done. It has been confirmed that the technical parameters we've initially mentioned can be implemented. Full-scale engineering development and the manufacturing of the satellite will be the next stage. It is necessary to build the entire ground infrastructure and develop the software,” the scientist noted.
The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Roscosmos are now working on financial aspects of the project. But work goes on. In particular, the Belarusian company Peleng has nearly finished developing engineering documentation for a telescope. The Russian corporation VNIIEM is also working on documentation.
The Smart Belarus exhibition has been organized by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) and the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI). Over 150 R&D products and technologies are on display. The exposition is divided into three clusters relating to the most pressing priorities in the development of the sphere of science. Those are “IT Country. Scientific support in economic digitalization”, “Overcoming COVID-19”, and “Future technologies”.
