Situation Normal
“We have managed during the past year to hold our ground in the world rocket industry and on the space services market,” Yury Alekseyenko, public relations director of the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenne State Design Bureau, told The Day on eve of Cosmonautics Day. “Above all,” he said, “I must note that we mostly focus on foreign economic activity, such as participation in international space projects, which accounts for 70-80% of all our earnings. Among our partners are companies and experts from the US, Germany, Egypt, China, Russia, Brazil, and other countries, with Sea Launch remaining our main project. And, although there was only one, instead of the customary 4-5, launch of an American satellite last year due to circumstances beyond Ukraine’s control, the design bureau wasted no time and increased the Zenit-3 SL launch vehicle’s payload from 5 to 6.15 tons, thus considerably improving its performance.” Nor are our rocket men marking time in implementing the joint Ukrainian-Russian project of the Dnipro launch vehicle based on the discarded SS-18 Satan strategic missile. Late last year, the Dnipro put into an orbit around the Earth as many as six satellites made in the US, Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, including a lunar module mockup which the Americans launched to attract investors.
“I can’t help saying a few words,” Mr. Alekseyenko added, “about the work we’ve resumed in order to launch Zenit carriers from the ground-based Baikonur Space Center. The point is we are going to launch there not only the two-stage Zenit-2 but also the three-stage Zenit-3 SL hitherto utilized only in the Sea Launch project. We still hope to carry out airborne launch projects, launch the Tsyklon-4 vehicles from a Brazilian equatorial site, and continue work on the Mayak-type rockets in which a US company has shown interest.”
“As is known,” Mr. Alekseyenko said, “our design bureau has won an international tender to build a satellite for Egypt. Late last year, we began to draw up the design sketch, while Dnipropetrovsk experts opened a training course for Egyptian specialists. On the whole, our cooperation is on schedule — and quite success. But we also always remember our own spacecraft: we expect a Sich-1M Ukrainian microsatellite to be put into low earth orbit this year.”
“The achievements of Ukrainian rocket producers,” Mr. Alekseyenko concluded, “will be displayed at a very high-profile international forum called Dnipropetrovsk, the Rocket Capital of Ukraine, which will be held on the basis of the Pivdenne bureau and the Southern Mechanical Engineering Plant in August-September this year. At the same time, a memorial to rocket builders, the only one in this country and perhaps in the world, will be unveiled in Dnipropetrovsk.
