A new Russian-Belarusian Earth remote sensing satellite is planned to be launched in 2020 or in 2021. This was announced today in Minsk at a meeting of scientists of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus with the top managers of the Roskosmos State Corporation. According to preliminary estimates, the satellite will cost $180 million.
This amount includes insurance. Experts not only discussed financial and technical issues related to the new joint satellite, but also summed up the results of the work of the Belarusian spacecraft. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 22 July, 2012 and has been in orbit for 5 years now.
The second satellite will weigh less than one ton, and will become part of the already existing Russian-Belarusian orbital group of high-resolution Earth remote sensing satellites.
