Space photographs of Earth are not a significant step for humanity in the third decade of the 21st century, but they are when one adds to the equation that they are being sent by the first Montenegrin satellite and the first such device from the Western Balkans to find itself in space.
A little more than three weeks after launch, the Luča satellite has taken its first photograph.
It shows part of the Earth’s surface above the open ocean.
“Through further operational work and additional communication sessions, the satellite will send new photographs in better quality, and in the coming period we also expect images of the territory of Montenegro from space,” the engineering team of Montenegro Space Research said in a statement.
Luča is also expected to transmit its first message to Earth soon.
The first Montenegrin satellite, Luča, was launched into space from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on December 28. The following day it sent its first signal.
It was carried into orbit by a Soyuz rocket, a “legend” of the global space industry.
The first satellite from the Western Balkans
As Montenegro Space Research previously announced, the Luča satellite represents the only satellite that is legally registered and operationally managed from a single country of the Western Balkans, and can therefore be fully defined as a national satellite.
“Based on the above, Montenegro becomes the first country of the Western Balkans to have a satellite that fully belongs to it: technically, legally, and operationally,” the statement said.
Montenegro had previously, in 2022, launched its first experimental CubeSat satellite, which was then marked as an introduction to the launch of the Luča satellite.
The launch of Luča was announced as early as January 2023 by then Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazović.
According to later announcements, the satellite was supposed to launch in April 2024, then in December of the same year, and it officially left the Earth’s surface on December 28, 2025.
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Source: Vreme.com, Foto: Printscreen / RTCG