Ukraine and Brazil are completing the legal instruments to establish a Cyclone-4 space rocket complex at the Alcantara launch site. As the National Space Agency of Ukraine press service told Interfax- Ukraine, the talks held in Kyiv with participation of the Brazilian Space Agency president, Luiz Gylvan Meira Filho, resulted in a coordinated draft intergovernmental technology-protection agreement in the light of Ukraine’s participation in launches from a Brazilian site. It is believed that the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenne Design Bureau, the Pivdenny Machine Building Plant, the Kharkiv-based Khartron Company, and the Italian FIAT-Avio will be the principal partners in an international project to set up the Cyclone-4 space rocket complex. General infrastructure of the launching site is to be built by Brazil’s Infraero. A number of other foreign, including American, firms also show interest in the project. It is planned to carry out up to six launches a year. The Cyclone-4 carrier rocket is expected to be put into operation by 2004. Experts point out that equatorial location of the Brazilian launch complex will make it possible for the Cyclone-4 to make maximum use of its capabilities.






