The new program for 2012-2016 is a continuation of earlier joint programs, the Roscosmos chief said. In his words, the document has passed virtually all harmonization procedures in both Belarus and Russia. The finance ministries of the two countries are set to study them soon. Vladimir Popovkin asked Mikhail Myasnikovich to raise this issue at the forthcoming session of the Union State Council of Ministers that will be held in Moscow on 15 August.
“We hope these issues will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting, so that the relevant agreement could be signed by the end of the year,” he said addressing the Premier.
The new program Monitoring-SG is another step to implement the long-standing efforts of Belarus and Russia to integrate their ground and orbital spacecrafts as well as intellectual and manufacturing resources for the study and peaceful use of outer space. The new program envisages the development of new technical and hardware/software solutions of the ground systems to control, receive, process, distribute space information and use the capacities of the orbital group of Russian and Belarusian spacecrafts. The parties will develop new models of onboard, ground, special-purpose and scientific equipment, materials and hardware components with improved properties. Besides, there are plans to design hardware/software complexes and training aids to train, retrain and provide advanced training to specialists dealing with earth remote sensing with the use of state-of-the-art computer, information and telecommunication technologies.
