National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Roscosmos to expand cooperation

The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Russian state corporation Roscosmos will expand cooperation, the press service of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus told BelTA.

A videoconference meeting of Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov and Director General of the Russian state space industry corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin has taken place. Vladimir Gusakov and Dmitry Rogozin discussed topical avenues of Belarus-Russia cooperation in space industry. In particular, agreements were reached on further promotion of joint projects in the area of piloted cosmonautics. The creation of a Belarusian-Russian satellite for the remote sensing of Earth with an extremely high resolution capacity and a Belarusian-Russian space system based on the satellite was discussed as well.

According to Vladimir Gusakov, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus backed the proposal on setting up a Eurasian space agency, which operation is supposed to consolidate efforts of the Eurasian Economic Union member states in the area of space industry and contribute to the development of joint projects. “Bilateral cooperation in the space industry should advance steadily for the benefit of our countries and should be an example for others to follow. I believe today's meeting will give a new impulse to this cooperation,” the official said.

The meeting also reviewed progress in the revision and approval of the Union State program Complex-SG by Belarusian central government agencies and federal executive bodies of the Russian Federation. Slated for execution in 2022-2026, the program was worked out by specialists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Roscosmos. It is designed to further cooperation of Belarusian and Russian enterprises and research institutions in the area of development of national space systems for the remote sensing of Earth using constellations of compact satellites.

The United Informatics Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is the main executor of the program on the Belarusian side. Intrastate reconciliation of the program is supposed to be finished in H1 2022. The program's practical implementation will begin after that. A total of seven R&D programs in the area of space industry have been fulfilled by scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. One program is being fulfilled.