Business news

MINSK, 13 December (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia intend to create a remote Earth sensing satellite with an extremely high resolution, BelTA learned from Vladimir Pokryshkin, Director General of the Belarusian microelectronics company OAO Peleng, during the second congress of Belarusian scientists on 13 December.

The executive said: “We are in negotiations with companies from various countries for the sake of creating equipment, including through joint efforts. The creation of a satellite for the remote sensing of Earth with an extremely high resolution is the closest project we can implement today, including for export purposes.” In his words, they agreed what the satellite will look like in May. The Belarusian side has already come up with technical specifications. The Russian space agency Roscosmos is supposed to approve the specifications by the end of the year.

Vladimir Pokryshkin also said how profitable it is to develop instrument making for outer space exploration. “In the past the state helped us out by allocating about $20 million for the development of instrument making for space industry. We saved up for several years and invested about $40 million from profits into this business. At present we have two manufacturing wings with equipment that allows making satellites with high resolution and extremely high resolution. We’ve taken orders for $200 million. We’ve done orders worth about $100 million already and are working on the next $100 million,” he summed up.