Russian Earth remote sensing satellite constellation will comprise 15 spacecraft by 2020

Russian Earth remote sensing satellite constellation will be expanded to 15 spacecraft by 2020; it will help strengthen the country’s position at the global market in the geo-information products and services segment. It was stated at the plenary session of the XIII All-Russian open conference “Contemporary issues in the area of Earth remote sensing”, which was held on November 20th 2015 at Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring (NTs OMZ) by the Russian Space Systems Company (part of the United Rocket and Space Corporation).

«Advanced technologies and design solutions of the Russian developers allowed developing hi-tech instruments for monitoring the Earth’s surface. In accordance with the program of Roscosmos State Corporation multi-role orbital monitoring systems will be developed by 2020; the systems will be able to generate up-to-date high-quality information about climatic conditions, natural resources and human activities connected with the use of innovative internet-services,” the corporation noted.

Deputy head of the Department of automatic space systems of the Federal Space Agency Valeriy Zaichko said that a national system providing customers with the latest geo-information products has been established. He added that capabilities of the satellite constellation would be significantly expanded after launch of new spacecraft. These steps will strengthen Russia’s position at the global market in the segment of monitoring, mapping and weather observation.

«Over the next five years we are going to establish specialized orbital systems designed for different missions: weather observation, monitoring of natural resources, mapping, emergency monitoring, etc. NTs OMZ as the operator of Russian Earth remote sensing systems will be able to offer a wide range of related products and new information services for different areas of Russian and global economy,” the corporation explained.