Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarian satellite Balkan-1 has been launched into space from base in USA

The satellite is a development of the Bulgarian company EnduroSat

Photo: БТА

The Bulgarian satellite Balkan-1 has been launched into Earth orbit to transmit data for the EU's Copernicus programme. The satellite is a development of the Bulgarian company EnduroSat and was launched into space from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara, California, onboard a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. 

The mission was monitored online at the Naval Postgraduate School Planetarium in Varna. 

The satellite is part of the EU's major space programme, which aims to explore various features of the Earth. It can monitor maritime areas and ships, provide disaster relief, land mapping, coastal monitoring and strategic infrastructure. 

On board the satellite there is a multispectral sensor detecting the content of various chemicals and elements in water and soil, monitoring their quality, analyzing the level of various pollutants and microplastic content. 

This is the first all-Bulgarian satellite with a scientific and security function, Lyubomir Toshev from the Bulgarian company explained to BTA. So far, the company has launched dozens of other satellites, but they have commercial purposes. 
"Balkan-1 is a 32 kg nanosatellite and its sensor has a resolution whose pixel corresponds to 1.5 meters of the Earth's surface. It orbits 500 km above the Earth. It has a planned lifetime of five years, after which it is intended to burn up in the stratosphere to avoid creating space debris, Toshev added.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Rumen Radev

President to hand over mandate for GERB-SDS government on January 15

President Rumen Radev will hand over the first exploratory mandate to form a government on Wednesday January 15 at 12 noon, the head of state's press secretariat said. The mandate will be given to the prime ministerial candidate nominated by the largest..

published on 1/13/25 5:55 PM

Inflation up 29.9 per cent since 2021, bread prices up 43.3 per cent 

An analysis by experts from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) shows that the cumulative growth of inflation (measured by the Consumer Price Index) over the last four years (from the beginning of 2021 until now) is..

published on 1/13/25 5:48 PM

Negotiations to form a regular government continue

Negotiations to form a regular government continue today. There is agreement on the name of the next prime minister - Rosen Zhelyazkov from GERB-SDS, there is also agreement on the governance agreement. However, the talks are complicated by the..

published on 1/13/25 3:54 PM