BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan. July 13 (Interfax-AVN) -The Russian Kanopus-V No. 1 and Belarusian BKA satellites will be launched from Baikonur Space Center on July 22, chief designer for tests of VNIIEM corporation Georgy Akopov said on Friday.
"The Russian and Belarusian satellites are expected to be placed in orbit on July 22," he said responding to a question from Interfax-AVN.
He said Kanopus-V will monitor areas of natural disasters for the Emergency Situations' Ministry and the Natural Resources' Ministry and BKA will serve the interests of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences.
The satellites weighing 400 kilos will operate together in a polar orbit at the altitude of 510 kilometers. One and the same surface will be filmed at different angles with a resolution of 2 meters which will permit stereo images, the designer added.
He said that difficulties cropped up in the process of developing the satellites but were resolved in four years. The control and positioning system of the satellites was developed by Britain's SSTL, their optic and electronic equipment by Belarusian Peleng.
Akopov said that Kanopus-V No. 2 and Mikhailo Lomonosov scientific satellites for Moscow State University based on the same space bus as the first Kanopus-B will be launched next year.