BelKA (an acronym from
BelarusianThe Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland...
:
Беларускі
Касьмічны
Апарат,
Belarusian
Cosmic
Apparatus) was intended to be the first satellite of independent
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
.
BelKA (an acronym from
BelarusianThe Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland...
:
Беларускі
Касьмічны
Апарат,
Belarusian
Cosmic
Apparatus) was intended to be the first satellite of independent
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
.
It was a remote sensing satellite that utilizes the Victoria universal satellite bus, developed by Belarusian researchers and Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya 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 19:45 GMT, however 86 seconds later, the Dnepr-1
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
suffered an engine failure and crashed, destroying the satellites.
The name BelKA is thought to be an allusion to the
dogDuring the 1950s and 1960s the USSR used a number of dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. The actual number of dogs in space is smaller,...
,
BelkaBelka may refer to one of the following.*Belka , one of the Soviet space dogs*Belka , a fictional nation from the Ace Combat video game series*BelKA, a failed Belarussian Earth satellite...
, who, together with
StrelkaStrelka, Russian for "little arrow" , may refer to one of the following:*Strelka, one of the Russian space dogs...
orbited the Earth and returned safely on
Sputnik 5Sputnik 5 was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth. Launched on August 19, 1960 it paved the way for the first human orbital flight less than eight months later with Vostok 1. Sputnik 5 was a USSR artificial Earth satellite from the Sputnik space...
in 1960.
- Satellite: BelKA 1
- Nation: Belarus
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
- Type / Application: Earth Observation
- Operator: National Academy of Sciences of Republic of Belarus
- Contractors: Russian RKA Energiya
- Configuration: Victoria bus
- Launcher: Dnepr-1 (also with Baumanets 1, AlMaSat 1)
- Launch: July 26, 2006, from the Russian space launch facility Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres above sea level...
- Planned lifetime: at least 5 years
- Mass: ~750 kg
- Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...
, at 510 km altitude
- Outcome: Carrier rocket failure, satellite destroyed