Ukrainian rockets in the orbit of new markets

It is not excluded that February 2004 will become quite a landmark in the history of Ukrainian rocket-making: a contract is to be signed in the small Italian town Colifero near Rome, which for the first time envisions the participation of Ukrainians in implementing a European Space Agency (ESA) project. As agreed upon with Avia (formerly Fiat-Avia), an Italian aerospace company, the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenne Design Bureau and the Pivdenny Mechanical Engineering Plant are to manufacture and deliver fourth-stage engines for the European launch vehicle Vega. Although Ukraine is still not an ESA member, our rocket- makers consider participation in the Vega project a real breakthrough into the European space market and believe, not without reason, that this is only the beginning.

According to Volodymyr Shniakyn, Pivdenne’s deputy general designer, cooperation with Avia began back in 1996, when the partners jointly explored the possibility of updating the Tsyklon-4 Ukrainian launch vehicle which was later utilized in the Ukrainian-Brazilian project at the Alcantara space center. The Italians, who had been developing a solid-propellant engine for the European rocket Ariane, decided in the long run to make also a launch vehicle of their own, the Vega four-stage rocket. Italy bears 70% of the expense, with the rest to a number of other ESA countries which receive orders according to their share in the project. Ukraine is so far only thinking — mainly for financial reasons — over associate ESA membership. Nevertheless, the engine designed in Dnipropetrovsk proved so successful that the Italians chose to sign a contract, which they first announced last year at the Moscow aerospace show. Naturally, the deputy general designer says, Pivdenne, which has been developing rockets and rocket engines for half a century, is quite capable of executing orders of practically any degree of complexity. Yet, competition on the aerospace market is so fierce today that selling engines for even one stage of the European launch vehicle can be considered quite good. What is even more valuable is acceptance and high appreciation of Ukrainian designs by Western experts.

The engine in question is a unique device: by applying a new principle of cooling, the Dnipropetrovsk designers managed to radically augment its thrust despite the small size of the combustion chamber. According to the deputy general designer, Pivdenne began to work on a new-type engine back in Soviet days, when it designed a lunar landing module. Although this module, which had been tested in outer space under weightlessness, was never used for its primary purpose due to cancellation of the moon program, its engine-manufacturing know-how was successfully employed to modernize the SS-18 Satan, the USSR’s most awesome intercontinental ballistic missile. In essence, the Vega will be equipped with a Satan engine that was formerly used to power the missile’s MIRVs. Of course, the engine has been extensively modified and adapted to new, quite peaceful, missions. Supposedly, it will take the Ukrainians and Italians about three years to carry out R&D before the engine is able to be fly-tested. Although the order is six engines a year, it is understood that for the time being the first batch of ten units will be delivered.

On the whole, the Dnipropetrovsk rocket-makers are very optimistic over the prospects of cooperation in international space projects. Mr. Shniakin says that Pivdenne, which has been involved in the Sea Launch international program for five years, is now experiencing “a true boom of orders:” in addition to the Vega cooperation, they simultaneously are working to implement the Ukrainian-Brazilian program of using the Ukrainian Tsyklon-4 launch vehicle at Brazil’s Alcantara space center and continue very fruitful cooperation with the Russians in improving the Dnipro launch vehicle converted from the SS-18 IBM. In addition, Pivdenne believes it is no accident that their former colleague, now President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma said Ukraine intends to participate in international Mars and Moon projects. In any case, Mr. Shniakin says, Pivdenne’s general manager Stanislav Koniukhov officially announced recently that the Dnipropetrovsk designers were going to offer a “Lunik” of their own (a lunar landing and take-off module) for the prospective American interplanetary and lunar expeditions.