Ukrainian space industry breaks into the South American market

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Dnipropetrovsk is in talks on building spacecrafts for South American nations of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, the journalists were told by the bureau’s chief designer Oleksandr Dehtiariov at the press conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Ukrainian satellite. Some African nations are starting to show interest in space industry, too, as shown by the bureau’s ongoing talks with Algeria on building a communications satellite. Such plans stand to get a major boost once a joint Ukrainian-Brazilian project on launching Dnipropetrovsk-built Tsyklon-4 rocket from the equatorial spaceport Alcantara is completed. Test launch of the rocket is set for early 2012. Yuzhmash rocket plant’s director general Viktor Kozyr described during the same press conference both companies’ moves to enter new spacecraft markets. He said: “We have started looking to satisfy commercial and scientific demand, including remote sensing, weather, and most importantly, telecommunication satellites. This division is just emerging now, and we hope the young people will join and build it further.” Ukraine continues to work with foreign assistance on building the first national communications satellite using modern electronic components. The first steps in that direction were made when building Sich-2 satellite, which has been launched into the Earth orbit on August 11, 2011. The journalists were told also that Yuzhmash’s industrial output grew five-fold in 2011 year-on-year, totaling almost 1.5 billion hryvnias. The average wages increased by half, too. In short, the company that ex-President Leonid Kuchma, on his own admission, wanted to sell to the Russians continues to work for Ukraine.