BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
01/02/20078
Satellite State
by Andrei Aliaksandrau
The Belarusian space program started with a crash and a bang, but scientists and the president still have their eyes on the stars.
It was nearly midnight on 26 July 2006, when President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and other dignitaries gathered in southern Kazakhstan to witness the launch of Belarus' first satellite. But within two minutes after takeoff, the Russian rocket carrying the machine and satellites from 17 other countries failed, sending the payload crashing to the ground.
One press report said the president "took the blow with dignity."
And determination, apparently. Barely two days later, Belarusian officials announced their intentions to build another satellite. It is slated for launch in late 2009.
Supporters say the program could boost the country's economy and defense, but critics call it a multimillion-dollar exercise in vanity.
One prominent Belarusian scientist said the effort is serious and will result in new technologies that the country can export.
"Not long ago we signed an international contract for delivery of technologies that help to process information about the earth and to create digital maps. We're quite strong at technologies of processing space information, and there's a great demand for them in the world," said Siarhej Ablamejka, director of the National Academy of Science's United Institute of Informatics Problems.
Already, Ablamejka said, Belarusian scientists have worked with their Russian counterparts to invent a method of thermal protection for space ships that is now in use for Mars landing projects.
But Anatol Liabedzka, leader of the opposition United Civil Party, said, "This project has no scientific or practical value. It's just that the long list of Lukashenka's historical victories and achievements does not have a line about turning Belarus into a space nation. Eight million dollars spent to satisfy his vanity could have been spent in a much more effective way."
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
In a modest way, Belarus is already a "space nation." Belarusian scientists have participated in Soviet and Russian space programs; two Belarusians, Piotr Klimuk and Uladzimir Kavalionak, were Soviet cosmonauts, and the parents of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, were from Belarus.
But these "space achievements" belong to the Soviet past. Independent Belarus has few such milestones of its own. The failed satellite was to change all that. It was dubbed BelKA - an abbreviation for Belarusian Space Apparatus as well as the name of a small, furry animal (belka in Belarusian means squirrel). One of the dogs in the Soviet ship Sputnik 5, which orbited earth in 1960, was also named Belka.
The recent squirrel's death in a fiery crash meant the loss of $8-10 million in development costs - covered by insurance - and two years' worth of work, according to various sources.
Scientists have promised that BelKA's successor will be more advanced. "A new satellite will be easier to operate, more reliable, light, and effective than BelKA," said Piotr Viciaz, the deputy chairman of Presidium of National Academy of Sciences. "We've learned the lessons of the past, and life goes on. We try to make use of the work we've done with the first satellite and to improve the quality and reliability of the satellite,"
The satellite will contain a high-resolution telescope to take pictures of the earth's surface to be used in cartography, forestry, agriculture, meteorology, and emergency preparedness. It could also be used to explore a region in the northeast of the country where a new oil field has been discovered.
The project will likely have military applications as well.
"The basis of national space program should include the demands of our country to use space technologies for defense issues as well as for mastering new technologies," President Lukashenka said about a year ago at a meeting dedicated to the questions of space exploration with specialists involved in space program.
The second satellite will cost around $15 million, but some experts argue that it is not money that really matters in this case, but the reputation of the country and its leader.
A MATTER OF PRESTIGE
The space program has long been a pet project of Lukashenka, culminating in his disappointing visit to the launch pad in Kazakhstan two years ago.
"To tell you the truth, I agreed on creating a satellite not only because it was needed by our society and the state. It would be a great pity for me to lose you, clever people, who were involved in a space program some time ago," Lukashenka told a gathering of scientists in November, referring nostalgically to the Soviet era.
Valery Karbalevich, an analyst at the Minsk-based Strategy think tank, said that economically, it's clear BelKA's benefits didn't cover its costs. "But I think the president is a bit disingenuous. It's not humanitarian help to scientists, but political prestige of the state and its leader that really matters," Karbalevich said.
Aleksandr Vajtovich, a former president of the National Academy of Sciences who used to lead the country's space committee, said he thinks the aims of the program are misguided. "I think it would be more successful for Belarus to develop technologies connected with space communication," he said. "This sphere is more commercially successful. Our country isn't that big - you can take pictures from a plane if you need to.
"We should invest our money in highly profitable businesses that will give us the opportunity to find a place of our own in the high-tech structure of the world economy," Vajtovich added
Franco Bonacina, a spokesman for the European Space Agency, said the type of space equipment a country develops is not purely a matter of markets; it largely depends on the country's expertise and facilities. He said that about 13 percent of his agency's 2008 budget will go for Earth observation equipment, while 9 percent will be spent on telecommunications. Development of launchers, which are in great demand, will take up about 21 percent of the European agency's budget.
MINSK, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Despite doubters, the Belarusian space program goes on, with plans for not only more satellites but also a flight control center in Minsk.
And Belarusian scientists are looking further ahead, to a third satellite, which will be equipped with a telescope able to focus on an area as small as one meter.
"The space market develops, and new requirements to equipment are introduced. If we build a telescope with such a resolution, it will make a Belarusian satellite more competitive on the world market," said Ablamejka of the National Academy of Sciences. The third satellite should be ready in four years.
In the meantime, when the second satellite goes into orbit within two years Belarus will have the chance to make the BelKA catastrophe a mere footnote. Whatever the motives, Belarus will forge ahead, per aspera ad astra - through struggles to the stars.
Andrei Aliaksandrau is the editor of the Ximik.info website, based in Navapolatsk, Belarus.
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