At a cost of $15 million, it will provide images of earth for goverment officials and clients.
Ukraine’s National Space Agency launched an observation satellite on Aug. 17 that it says will provide accurate data to government ministries, helping them to prevent disasters by locating forest fires and floods and checking the growth of crops across the country’s territory.
At a cost of $15 million, the fifth Ukraine-made, owned and operated satellite in orbit since independence in 1991 will provide images of earth for government officials and clients for an undisclosed fee.
The previous four Ukraine-operated satellites are no longer operational, having exhausted their lifetimes. The Sich-2 has, however, already managed to send its first snapshots of earth from orbit. It will go into full operation this fall.
Designed at Dnipropetrovsk’s Pivdenne Design Bureau and built at the Pivdenmash plant, Sich-2 differs from the much talked about and highly profitable telecommunication satellites. It has a scientific mission.
In addition to taking infrared photos, it will study particles, as well as electric and magnetic fields in the earth’s upper atmosphere.
Ukraine’s mostly government-run space industry is on the up this year, more than doubling output in the first quarter and bringing in $11.3 million profit. Its main activity is launching other country’s satellites and producing carrier rockets.
The cost of the design and construction of Sich-2 was kept low after Egypt ordered a similar satellite. Egyptsat-1 was built by Ukraine and launched in 2007.
Natalya Borotkanych, spokeswoman for the agency, said Sich-2 is actually an enhanced version of Egyptsat-1, which is no longer operational.
Ukraine’s mostly government-run space industry is on the up this year, more than doubling output in the first quarter and bringing in $11.3 million profit.
“These satellites are pretty much the same, and many Sich-2 technical solutions were tested on Egyptsat-1,” said Svitlana Naimenko, a spokeswoman for Pivdenmash.
Sich-2 will work in test mode until mid-October.
The first pictures of Russia, Poland and Ukraine have been received at a data processing center in the town of Dunaivtsi, Khmelnytsky Oblast.
The National State Space Agency said the satellite has advantages over the free images provided by Google Earth using the Digital Globe and GeoEye satellites.
Sich-2 provides more accurate and detailed data, they claim.
Images will be provided without a delay that is usual for data provided by satellites operated by other countries, Ukrainian officials said.
Serhiy Voloshin, head of the Ministry for Emergency Situations’ monitoring and forecasting unit, said the satellite could help pinpoint forest fires and floods in remote areas with greater accuracy and prevent them from growing into large-scale disasters.
The space agency said the Ministry for Agrarian Policy could also use the satellite to track crop growth and drought risks.
The ministry said the satellite images could be very useful and promising, but is waiting until testing ends before placing orders.
The space agency said Sich-2 is not a commercial project, but private individuals and companies can order images from the Dniprokosmos website (www.dniprokosmos.dp.ua).
It is as yet unclear how much the service will cost.
The National Space Agency said it was keen to launch one or two more Sich satellites to provide greater coverage, but admitted government financing for the project was unlikely before 2014.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be reached at [email protected]
