Belarusian satellite saves millions of government money

By relying on shots taken by the Belarusian space satellite BKA, Belarusian ministries and agencies managed to save about $3.6 million in January-September 2014, BelTA learned from Boris Chernukha, Deputy Director for Science of the enterprise Geoinformation Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, during the opening of the 6th Belarusian Space Congress.

“Belarusian government agencies have started using our shots much more actively. While import substitution was estimated at about $1 million as of 1 January, at present it is $4.6 million. Our government agencies and ministries have saved $3.6 million in January-September 2014 thanks to the shots taken by BKA,” he explained.

Shots taken by the Belarusian space satellite are used by 11 ministries and government agencies of Belarus. The number includes the Emergencies Ministry, the Forestry Ministry, the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry. The shots are available for free to Belarusian organizations financed by the state budget or to business entities, which carry out projects at the expense of the state budget.

The Belarusian satellite BKA was put into orbit together with the Russian satellite Canopus-B at an altitude of about 500-520km using the carrier rocket Soyuz and the booster module Fregat at 9:41 Minsk time on 22 July 2012. The shots taken by the Belarusian satellite boast high spatial resolution and provide panchromatic views (one channel) of the Earth’s surface with the resolution of 2.1m and multiple-channel views (4 channels) with the resolution of 10.5m.

The optical electronics equipment for the satellite weighs 150-200kg. It was made by the Belarusian companies Peleng and the Cybernetics Institute. The other equipment was imported from Russia and the UK.

The satellite started taking shots of the Earth’s surface on 29 August 2012.