On November 15, 2021, the 14th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition was officially launched at the NASB.

This year, 11 people will go to the ice continent under the leadership of the permanent conductor of the Antarctic expeditions - Alexei Gaidashov. The expedition includes researchers from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Republican Center for Polar Research, Institute of Physics, Joint Institute for Informatics Problems, State Scientific and Production Association “Scientific Research Center of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Bioresources”), BSU (National Research Center for Ozonosphere Monitoring) and other organizations of the country.

The team consists of specialists who have already visited Antarctica (8 people) and beginners (3 people). These are: Alexey Gaidashov - the head of the expedition; Alexey Khatkevich - head of the seasonal field base; Vladimir Nesterovich - specialist, mechanic; Egor Korzun - environmental biologist; Sergey Lyuty - leading specialist, head of food production; Igor Alekseev - Researcher (Physics of the Atmosphere); Sergei Puninsky - surgeon; Alexander Abaturin - electrician, specialist in VHF and HF communications; Yuri Podshivalov - Researcher, Meteorologist; Nikolay Zinkevich is a programmer and Artur Ivashko is an engineer.

The members of the expedition will have to work hard for many months away from their homeland to increase the construction of their own house on the shores of Antarctica - the Belarusian Antarctic station "Mount Vechernyaya", as well as to conduct scientific research within the framework of a new state program for the study of Antarctica.

As the First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Academician Sergei Chizhik, emphasized, speaking at the event, the main goal of the current expedition is to obtain new significant scientific results. “Our scientists have already obtained important results in the study of the Antarctic continent. This is the discovery of new species of invertebrates for science and the assessment of their commercial stocks; creation of a reference collection of mosses and lichens, which is a scientific object that constitutes the National Treasure of the Republic of Belarus; substantiation of the prospects for the location of the Belarusian Antarctic Station for minerals; creation of a basic hardware complex for an experimental remote ground and satellite system for monitoring the atmosphere and snow surface; creation of a radiometric system, which is included in the global radiometric network AERONET. And this is not a complete list of the achievements that have been obtained by our scientists during the Belarusian Antarctic expeditions,” noted Sergei Chizhik. However, as Sergei Chizhik emphasized, during the upcoming expedition, it is necessary to exert a lot of effort so that the results of research in Antarctica are significant for the entire country. “This requires the organization of new studies of the unique biological potential of Antarctica to identify the most active enzymes that could be used to develop new types of drugs with a wide range of action (antitumor, antihypertension, etc.); search and study of unique geological objects and minerals, new data on the structure of the earth's crust of BAS and others,” said Sergei Chizhik.

ВIn turn, the head of the 14th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition Aleksey Gaidashov emphasized that the planned expedition will be the most capacious in scientific directions. “In addition to the six main scientific directions, which were included in the program of scientific research, each employee has his own scientific tasks,” said Aleksey Gaidashov.

On Friday, November 19, 2021, members of the 14th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition will fly to Cape Town by air. After two weeks of quarantine by air - to the base in Antarctica. From December 2021 to May 2022, extensive scientific research and major work will be carried out on the construction of the second stage of the Belarusian Antarctic Station "Vechernyaya Mountain". The return is planned for late April - May 2022.