Tags: Artificialsatellite, Satellite.
BelKA (an acronym from Belarusian: Беларускі Касмічны Апарат Belarusian Cosmic Apparatus) was intended to be the first satellite of independent Belarus.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 rocket suffered an engine failure and crashed destroying the satellites.The name BelKA is thought to be an allusion to the dog Belka who together with Strelka orbited the Earth and returned safely on Sputnik 5 in 1960.