Arktika-MP weather satellite development to begin in 2026 - Roscosmos

MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The development of the Arktika-MP hydro-meteorological satellite will begin in 2026, Russia's Roscosmos said on Friday.

"The Roscosmos state corporation is planning to design a next-generation hydro-meteorological satellite, Arktika-MP, which will provide qualitatively new information about the high-latitude Arctic regions of the Earth by increasing the number of spectral channels and improving the spatial resolution of the resulting images," Roscosmos said.

The project will kick off in 2026, it said.

"Currently, Roscosmos' Lavochkin Research and Production Center is building the Arktika-M2 satellite to be launched in 2023," Roscosmos said.

It is also planned to build and launch Arktika-M3, 4, 5 and 6 satellites before 2031, it said.

The Arktika space hydro-meteorological and climate monitoring system is designed for climate and environmental monitoring in the Arctic region. Its minimal configuration is two vehicles. According to Lavochkin NPO, two Arktika-M satellites of the system will provide round-the-clock all-weather monitoring of the Earth surface and Arctic seas.