MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2019) Russia's Progress Rocket Space Centre (RSC) will receive the main instrument of the first Obzor-R satellite � the radar � in late 2019, the company's CEO Dmitry Baranov told Sputnik on Sunday.
"According to the terms of the state contract, the launch of the first Obzor-R spacecraft is scheduled for 2021. In accordance with the current progress of work, we plan to receive a flight radar model by the end of 2019 and prepare the device for shipment to the cosmodrome in late 2020," Baranov said.
Earlier, Roscosmos reported that the launches of two such satellites were planned in 2021 and 2023, but also indicated the possibility of accelerating the construction of vehicles and conduction their launch as early in 2020.
The Obzor-R satellites will solve the tasks of various Russian ministries and agencies, including mapping, monitoring emergencies, identifying potentially dangerous geological processes, searching for minerals, and many others. They will be able to conduct remote Earth sensing at a time when cloudiness or nighttime make it difficult or impossible to work with optoelectronic devices.
The satellite's high-precision mode will allow surveying of areas 10 to 20 kilometers (6.2 to 12.4 miles) with a spatial resolution of 1 meter and a radiometric resolution no worse than 3 dB. Depending on the tasks, the instrument provides for various modes of route surveying. The length of the route may be up to 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), the width of the view may vary from 470 to 750 kilometers on either side of the flight route. The Obzor-R will operate at a terminator Sun-synchronous orbit, which will allow covering the Earth's surface in a range of latitudes from 35 to 60 degrees north latitude with a two-day view span.
