Creation of Own Space Agency - Subject of Lukashenko's Meeting

Creation of the country's own space agency was one of the topics of the meeting of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko with the leadership of the Council of Ministers, BelTA reports.

The head of state reminded that back in the Soviet times Belarus had a space industry with an impressive component in defense, science, communications and other areas.

"During the years of sovereign development we have made decent progress in these areas, especially now, being under sanctions. We are working on the creation of a Russian-Belarusian spacecraft for ultra-high resolution Earth remote sensing. Almost all the most important components of such a satellite are created in Belarus and put on the Russian platform," said the President. - At the same time, most of the target equipment is manufactured by our Peleng enterprise. Three space programs of the Union State are under development."

Now the National Academy of Sciences performs the main functions of regulating space activities. That is, the management system is still in operation at the moment.

"The question is simple: what is wrong or insufficient about the current command and control structure? Is it able to fully take into account and participate in international programs? And what will we gain from the creation of a "Belarusian NASA"? Will the impact be comparable to the costs of the new implementation and its maintenance?" - Alexander Lukashenko outlined the key topics for discussion.