Ukraine will launch an Earth remote-sensing satellite in April 2010, the country's top space official said on Thursday.

The spacecraft is designed for optical monitoring of the Earth's surface with a resolution of 6-7 meters. "It could be used for monitoring of territories: fires, harvests, etc.," the UNIAN news agency quoted Oleksandr Zinchenko, the director general of the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU), as saying. According to Zinchenko, the satellite will carry a payload of 158 kg, and it is expected to be launched using the Dnepr launch vehicle, a converted SS-18 ballistic missile. The former Soviet republic has been conducting space activities since 1993, and became a space power (country able to launch own satellite by own carrier rocket) in August 31st, 1995, with the launch of the Sich-1 Earth remote-sensing satellite on a Tsyklon delivery vehicle. Ukraine launched a modernized version of the satellite, the Sich-1M, in 2004. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Wednesday the country was planning to launch its first communications satellite, the Lybid, in 2011.