Belarusian education system has received a new impetus for space exploration. The recent flight of the first cosmonaut of a sovereign country, Hero of Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya, gave a go to new scientific achievements.

Today, on the International Day of Human Space Flight, we are all proud of what we have and are making grandiose plans for the future.

The first Belarusian satellite was launched into orbit on July 22, 2012. In 2013, our country became a member of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Belarusians have created a new branch of the economy – space one. More than 20 scientific and industrial organizations are involved in it, including those from the Ministry of Education. There are four Belarusian satellites orbiting the Earth, two of them are BSU CubeSat format.

The new industry in Belarus has made a significant contribution to economic development. Almost all sectors of our economy require space information, which we obtain using remote sensing of the Earth. Thanks to satellite data, we have learned to predict the weather, the state of forests, fire danger situations, study climate change, predict crop yields, and monitor the land fund. According to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the economic effect of using space information is quite high.

A landmark project is the preparation and flight into space of a Belarusian cosmonaut on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Representatives of educational organizations also participated in the selection of candidates for the flight.

The prime crew of Visiting Expedition 21 included our fellow countrymen - Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, Marina Vasilevskaya (flight attendant-instructor for Belavia airlines) and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. A number of scientific experiments by the Belarusian cosmonaut in the fields of medicine, biology, physiology and remote sensing of the Earth were fully completed.

Head of the Department of Science and Innovation Activities of the Ministry of Education Petr Pekutko commented that organizations of the relevant department take an active part in conducting theoretical and applied research related to space exploration. “Teams of university scientists continue to work on creating equipment for satellites, equipment for receiving and processing space information, creating hardware and software systems based on Earth remote sensing data. In particular, within the framework of the State Program “Knowledge-Intensive Technologies and Engineering,” the Ministry of Education is one of the state customers of subprogram 6 “Exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.”