Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 6 September (BelTA) – Belarus will display its space capabilities at the 31^st Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers, Sergei Zolotoi, Director of the enterprise Geoinformation Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, chief designer of the Belarusian space system for the remote sensing of Earth, said at a press conference on 6 September, BelTA has learned.

“Our goal is to demonstrate Belarus’ space capabilities to the world community. Our country is among the world’s space powers. The country has two spacecraft in the orbit. These are BKA and Belintersat 1 satellites. Belarus is working in cooperation with Russia to deploy the GLONASS system. We have a lot of scientific projects in the space sector. The Belarusian equipment is installed on the International Space Station. The opening day of the congress will feature an exhibition to showcase major research materials in the Earth remote sensing, new Belarusian technologies, materials, and software,” said Sergei Zolotoi.

The exhibition will display the results of the implementation of the Union State space programs. “The Belarusian exhibitors will include Peleng, Sevchenko Institute of Applied Physical Problems of the Belarusian State University and the United Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus,” said Executive Director of the Union State program Monitoring SG, head of the department of joint programs of space and information technologies of the United Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Sergei Korenyako.

The 31^st planetary congress of the Association of Space Explorers will be held in Minsk on 9-15 September. About 90 cosmonauts from 17 countries will take part in it. The opening ceremony will take place in the expo center BelExpo on Monday, 10 September. Cosmonauts and astronauts are expected to meet with Belarusian school and university students on Wednesday, 12 September. Technical sessions are scheduled to take place to review the international space program, discuss results of flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and space science. Apart from that, a parkway of cosmonauts will be opened in the botanical garden. A monument to Belarusian space flight participants will be unveiled in Kosmonavtov Street. Sightseeing tours to places of interest in Belarus will be arranged.

The Association of Space Explorers is an international not-for-profit organization that unites cosmonauts and astronauts from many countries. It was established in 1985 to share the best practices in the area of manned space flights. The Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers gathers cosmonauts and representatives of scientific research institutions and national space agencies on an annual basis.