Belarus celebrates eighth anniversary of its status as a space power

26 июля 2020
Back in 2012 our first artificial sensing satellite entered the orbit. This week, Belarus celebrated its eighth anniversary as a space power. 

The satellite was designed for mapping tasks, but its scope was much wider. It is also used to control agricultural production, natural resources, to monitor emergency situations such as forest fires and to search for mineral deposits. Today Belarus makes money from space - images of our satellite are in demand in the market. 

Belarus is now on the list of space powers. And right now  there are 8 satellites equipped with Belarusian optics. And the country went to this after the collapse of the Soviet Union not looking back at the opinions of skeptics.

Sergei Zolotoi, Director of UE "Geoinformation Systems", member of the NAS of Belarus, Candidate of Technical Sciences: "In the 90s, Belarus became an independent country. A great number of people worked for the space industry of the Soviet Union, and they got unemployed. And at that time, the government decided to support these groups". 

Petr Vityaz, head of the administration apparatus of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, deputy chairman of the Space Research Agency of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus: "We have developed a series of equipment that is used for remote sensing of the Earth, which is being developed by our organization Peleng. And today 6 such devices have already been produced for Russia, such as "Canopus". And on the basis of all these satellites a group of Russian-Belarusian satellites has been created, which is also engaged in research and expands opportunities. We can control both Russian Canopus satellites and Russians can control ours".

Minsk became the world space capital two years ago. In September 2018, Belarus hosted the 31st Congress of the Association of Space Flight Participants. 17 countries, 200 participants and over 80 astronauts. 

Work is currently underway to create a new Belarusian-Russian satellite of ultra-high resolution. The highlight of the new satellite is the function of recording video of one and a half minutes. Stereo shooting is also available: The device will be able to photograph the same object from different sides to obtain a 3D model of the structure or terrain. And the infrared range will easily detect forest fires. Production of the new Belarusian-Russian spacecraft will take about five years. There are no more than four satellites of this class in orbit today.