MINSK, 21 January (BelTA) – Plans are in place to launch a Belarusian-Russian satellite in 2021, BelTA learned from Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov on 21 January.
The official said: “We intend to launch a new Belarusian-Russian satellite in 2021. The schematic design is in development now. Decisions on financing and specifications are being made. It will use components primarily of Belarusian and Russian make. We are now ready to use more Belarusian components to make satellites.”
Negotiations with Director General of the Russian state space industry corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin are supposed to take place in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus today. The development of the new satellite will be discussed among other things.
BelTA reported earlier that the orbital lifecycle of the existing Belarusian space satellite has been extended till late 2021. It means the actual lifecycle of the satellite will be roughly twice that of the initial design lifecycle. The decision to extend the service life is equal to launching another satellite. The satellite's operation is important for many industries. In 2019 customers received over 2,000 high-resolution remote Earth sensing data packages. The data covers a total of over 2 million km2 and is valued at roughly $4 million.
