17 September, Minsk /Andrei Asfura - BELTA/. Belarus may launch a new Earth remote sensing satellite by 2017. This was announced today to journalists by the Director General of the Joint Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Alexander Tuzikov, BELTA correspondent reports. According to him, the service life of the Belarusian Spacecraft (BKA), successfully launched this year, is 5 years. Therefore, closer to 2017, Belarus will need to develop a new Earth remote sensing spacecraft. Currently, Belarus is developing the concept of a new national space program. The document plans to focus on the development and possible launch of a new Earth remote sensing spacecraft. The Director General of the institute noted that the main parameters of the future satellite have not yet been determined. "Regarding the possibility of using more powerful optical equipment, all this will depend on current needs. If there is more powerful optics, a heavier platform will be required, and consequently, the output will be a more expensive spacecraft," explained Alexander Tuzikov. "Perhaps the republic does not need such a large spacecraft." In the future, the Earth remote sensing system is planned to be developed in various directions, providing not only space but also aviation segments, which may receive wide development due to technologies for creating unmanned aerial vehicles. The Belarusian Spacecraft launched this year is currently undergoing flight tests. Boris Chernukha, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of RUP "Geoinformation Systems" of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, said that the space information obtained from the satellite will be used, among other things, for the needs of agriculture. Space images are planned to be processed according to some parameters relevant to such tasks, to forecast harvests and to carry out accounting of agricultural lands.