| BelKA | |
| Mission Type: | Earth observation |
| Operator: | National Academy of Sciences of Belarus |
| Mission Duration: | 5 years (planned) Failed to orbit |
| Launch Mass: | ~750kg (1,650lb) |
| Launch Site: | Baikonur 109/95 |
| Orbit Epoch: | Planned |
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric |
| Orbit Regime: | Low Earth Orbit |
| Apsis: | gee |
BelKA or BKA (an acronym from Belarusian: Беларускі Касмічны Апарат, Belarusian Cosmic Apparatus) is the first satellite of independent Belarus.
It was a remote sensing satellite that utilizes the USP (satellite bus), developed by Belarusian researchers and Russian Rocket and Space Corporation RSC Energia for National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus as the final customer of the satellite, which had the capacity to take photos of the Earth surface, with a maximum resolution of 2-2.5 meters.
BelKA was launched, along with seventeen other satellites, on July 26, 2006 at 19:43 GMT, however 86 seconds later, the Dnepr rocket suffered an engine failure and crashed, destroying the satellites.[1]
The name BelKA is thought to be an allusion to the Soviet space dog, Belka, who, together with Strelka orbited the Earth and returned safely on Sputnik 5 in 1960.
The second launch was successful. It was launched together with the Russian satellite on the Soyuz-FG/Fregat launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 22, 2012, after a long delay. Belarus put the plame for the delay onto British software.[2] [3] It was planned to be operational until the end of 2021.[4]