Anatoly Rusetsky, the Chairman of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences’ Presidium, has told the media, “Complex tests of the satellite are yet to conclude but are nearly done. We are on schedule, as approved jointly with the Russian Space Agency.” He tells us that a launch date is yet to be set but stresses that there is no hurry; launch dates of Belarusian and Russian satellites have been shifted several times for various reasons. “The creation of new equipment, instruments and devices always entails certain problems. We’ve aimed to create a reliable satellite, testing it thoroughly on the Earth’s surface, to allow us to operate it with confidence in space,” he notes.
It is expected that, this year, the Belarusian satellite will go into orbit, jointly with the Russian Canopus-B satellite, from Baikonur — via a Soyuz carrier rocket and a Fregat booster module. It will orbit at about 500km above the Earth’s surface. The Belarusian satellite will be lighter and more manoeuvrable than its predecessor, weighing just 400kg and having a resolution of about 2 metres. It will be able to provide space imaging of the whole of Belarus. In the future, Belarus plans to set up a multiple-layer system for the remote probing of the Earth.
