Successfull Launch of Ukrainian Sich-2-30 Satellite into Orbit

*Sich-2-30 satellite was developed and assembled by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye State Design Office / Photo credit: Yuzhnoye State Design Office*

Sich-2-30 satellite was launched at the Cape Canaveral U.S. Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in a framework of the Transporter-3 mission by SpaceX’ Falcon-9 heavy launch vehicle

The mission Transporter-3 is a so-called smallsat dedicated rideshare mission by SpaceX, in which the company launches a number of satellites which includes up to 200 kg of payload mass for various customers for as low as $1 million on one rocket. The mission’s target is a sun-synchronous orbit. This would be SpaceX’s third rideshare mission.

SpaceX’ Falcon-9 was launched at 10:25 US Eastern Standard Time (EST) from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Photo credit: SpaceX

The satellite is designed to obtain digital images of the surface of our planet, which can be involved in land use, agriculture and forestry, cartography, water control and monitoring of emergencies and natural disasters, security and defense, in detecting illegal activities.

The Ukrainian satellite is also designed to monitor the basic parameters of neutral and charged particles of the Earth’s ionosphere and to measure the dose of cumulative radiation from cosmic radiation.

After launch, the Sich-2-30 satellite will be involved in the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.

The satellite is the first domestic remote sensing device of the Earth in the last 10 years.