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Dnipropetrovsk firms will build mock cosmodrome

05 October, 00:00

Dnipropetrovsk-based firms are fast developing the joint Ukrainian-Brazilian space project Cyclone-4. The first test launch of the rocket from the equatorial Brazilian cosmodrome Alcantara is planned for the first quarter of 2012. The Pivdenne Design Bureau informs that the independent testing of all systems and units that are part of the Ukrainian rocket is now complete. Simultaneously, work is underway to develop the surface launch site, which will be constructed in Brazil. For greater reliability of the space launch, a working model of the cosmodrome will be produced in Dnipropetrovsk.

The Dniprovazhmash JSC will construct the model. This test bed will be identical to the Brazilian complex, making it possible to work out such procedures as transportation of the launch vehicle to the launch table, and its setting on the table, as well as assess the beha­vior of rockets under various wind loads. The role of the launch vehicle will be performed by a special steel construction, equal in mass and height to the real rocket. It is expected that the use of the training complex will reduce risks during the positioning and launching of real rockets, and it will make these operations safer and cheaper. Experts from the Pivdenne Bureau note that the Cyclone rockets have long ago proven themselves to be most reliable. There were very few failures in their launch history.

The implementation of the current Ukrainian-Brazilian space project promises great benefits. Launching the vehicle from an equatorial cosmodrome orbit allows putting much more weight into the geocentric orbit at the same energy cost. Thus, the commercial launches of satellites will become more competitive in the global market space. To some extent the project Cyclone-4 will replace the international project Sea Launch, which is now in trouble due to the corporation going bankrupt because of the crisis. This year the Ukrainian specialists carried out satellite launches only by converting launch vehicles of the Dnipro type, which are, in fact, de-militarized strategic missiles SS-18 Satan. However, Dnipropetrovsk rocket firms are participating in a number of promising international projects. For example, they are developing the first stage for the American launch vehicle Taurus-2, which will be used to deliver needed cargo to the International Space Station, instead of the previously used Space Shuttles.

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