Yuriy Radchenko, Acting Chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), announced Ukraine’s intentions to launch the telecommunications satellite in the fourth quarter of present year.
Ukraine plans to launch the telecommunications satellite “Lybid” into space in the fourth quarter of 2017, as stated by the Acting Chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Yuriy Radchenko, when speaking at the Space Symposium.
“This year, the National Space Agency of Ukraine faces a mission to launch a telecommunications satellite, which is scheduled to accomplish for the fourth quarter of this year”, as Mr. Radchenko stated in Colorado Springs.
The SSAU first announced launching the satellite “Lybid” into orbit in 2017 in November 2016. Now it became known that the launching operations will be carried out in the fourth quarter.
However, according to the opinion of Nikolay Testoyedov, Director General of the “Information Satellite Systems (ISS), shared in his interview with the RIA Novosti, the agenda of further operations relative to the Ukrainian communications satellite is not actually defined.
“The space vehicle “Lybid” still remains in safe storage in the ISS’s facilities in Krasnoyarsk. The technical regulations are executed in compliance with the planing operational documentation. We are in a close contact with the customer of the satellite, i.e. the Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd (MDA), and we regularly inform it about the conditions of the vehicle. The agenda of further operations relative to this vehicle has not been defined yet, and unfortunately I do not have any new reliable information”, as Mr. Testoyedov says.
At the same time, Mr. Radchenko points out that in 2018, the agency is about to launch into orbit two more satellites.
“According to the program approved for the next year, we plan to launch two satellites, which are currently under construction”, as he announced. “One satellite will be designed to remote sensing of the Earth, and the second one will conduct scientific missions”.
Moreover, according to Mr. Radchenko, Kyiv plans to start implementing a new space program in 2018, which provides for creating a satellite constellation for remote sensing of the Earth. He emphasizes that the agency plans to use Ukrainian technologies, while working on the program.
“In addition, our space program, scheduled for 2018-2022, provides for creating a family of launch vehicles”, as he added.
Mr. Radchenko also remarks that Ukraine has been actively cooperating with the European Space Agency and is looking forward to become its member in the near future.
