The planned launch of 10 meteorological satellites by the end of 2025 will make it possible to achieve independence from foreign space data, said Igor Shumakov, the head of Roshydromet, according to TASS.
"If the plan to launch our spacecraft in the federal space program is fulfilled by 2025, we will be virtually independent of foreign satellite data," Shumakov said.
According to him, Roshydromet is the customer or co-customer of all Earth remote sensing satellites created within the framework of the federal space program. The Agency has its own space environmental monitoring system.
As of 2023, a group of 15 satellites were stationed in orbit in the interests of solving the tasks of Roshydromet, including two Arctic-M series satellites launched into a highly elliptical orbit for the first time in the world.
"Over the past five years, six meteorological satellites have been launched, three of them in 2023. This is more than in any of the previous years. It should be noted that this year our group will continue to add more satellites: the Meteor-M hydrometeorological satellite and the Resurs-P high-resolution device have already been put into orbit," Shumakov said.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished