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Belarus’ satellite to be launched into orbit this fall

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has defended his government’s spending on a space program and announced that BKS, a Belarusian Earth-imaging satellite, will be launched into orbit this fall, BelaPAN reports.

There has been a lot of talk and severe criticism about the government’s space program,” the Belarusian leader said while delivering Tuesday his annual presidential address to the National Assembly and the Belarusian people.

Mr. Lukashenka said that the program would allow Belarus to export technologies. “And after all, we should know what is taking place on the Earth,” he said. “We are supporting the development of science and spare no money,” he said.

“We are going to launch this object [satellite] of ours as early as this fall,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “There is already demand for the products that we will have. We have already established our mission control center. We will be completely independent with this program, and we will get immense results with the assistance of Russia with which we are cooperating. We will teach people advanced technologies.”