First Remote Sensing Satellite To Be Launched In Late 2006

The first satellite for the remote sensing of the Earth will be launched in late 2006, a senior space official said Tuesday, reports RIA Novosti.

"The first remote sensing satellite, Meteor 3M, will be launched at the end of 2006," Grigory Chernyavsky, the general designer of remote sensing systems at the Russian Federal Space Agency, told a conference on remote sensing.

Chernyavsky said the Federal Space Program for 2006-2015 suggested the creation of seven remote sensing systems to obtain "fundamental knowledge about the Earth and monitor natural resources".

The official also said the main objectives outlined in the Federal Space Program were to restore and develop a remote sensing orbital group and create infrastructure for the access of the users of such systems, who include the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Ministry of Transportation, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, the Natural Resources Ministry and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Chernyavsky said the program distinguished between space systems for hydro-meteorological monitoring, systems for monitoring the Earth and radio-radar systems.

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