The Ukrainian remote sensing satellite «Sich-2-30» is completing its orbital mission. The descent from orbit occurred on the night of October 8-9, Kyiv time.
The Ukrainian remote sensing satellite «Sich-2-30» is completing its orbital mission. The descent from orbit occurred on the night of October 8-9, Kyiv time.
According to Military, the forecast of space flight analyst Joseph Remis specified a window between 8:57 p.m. and 6:57 a.m., within which the spacecraft was to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere.
«Sich-2-30» became the first Ukrainian satellite in orbit after a pause of more than a decade: on January 13, 2022, it was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-3 mission. The device was created for imaging in the visible and infrared ranges, primarily for environmental monitoring, land use, cartography, and emergency response. The spatial resolution of about 7 meters made it possible to regularly obtain overview images of large areas, but was inferior to commercial submeter systems used for precise defense tasks.
After launch, the mission had a difficult start. Due to the peculiarities of the cluster launch, in the first hours it was not possible to stably bring the device into working orientation and maintain communication, which affected the power supply by solar batteries. Later, contact was restored, but the operating mode remained limited compared to initial expectations. Despite this, «Sich-2-30» returned to Ukraine its own source of optical remote sensing data and made it possible to support the competencies of the ground segment — planning of surveys, receiving telemetry, processing products.
The history of the device began back in 2011: it was a modernized Sich-2 stand-in, which, after the main machine’s service life ended in 2013, was decided to be further developed. The launch was prepared from a Brazilian test site in 2017, but it was postponed; in 2021, the satellite was named Sich-2-30 for the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence, and the actual launch took place in 2022. In terms of overall size and mass, the device belongs to the small class: mass is about 170–180 kg, orbit is sun-synchronous at an altitude of approximately 660–680 km, capture band is approximately 46 km.
«Sich-2-30» provided the state with its own regular medium-resolution images and became a «bridge» to a new line: optical devices with higher detail, radar platforms and deeper integration with the European data ecosystem. In 2025, Ukraine agreed to participate in components of the EU Copernicus program, which expands access to services and creates better conditions for combining national observations with European infrastructure.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the American space company SpaceX successfully launched another batch of 24 Starlink internet satellites into orbit. This is the 300th launch as part of the project to deploy a global satellite internet network.
