• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Seven Ukrainian-Made Rocket Carriers Launched in 2004

Posted on: Monday, 31 January 2005, 21:00 CST

KYIV. Jan 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Seven Ukrainian-made rocket carriers were launched in 2004 to put 15 satellites into orbit, Ukrainian National Space Agency general director Oleksandr Nehoda said at his agency's session in Kyiv.

Rocket carriers remain the core of the Ukrainian spacecraft building industry, and expanding the country's production of Zenit, Tsiklon and Dnepr rocket carriers and boosting Ukraine's involvement in the global market for launch services are among the National Space Agency's top priorities for 2005, Nehoda said.

Ukraine is currently one of seven countries which engages in regular launches of rocket carriers.

In 2004, Ukraine ranked fourth by its number of manufactured and launched rocket carriers, expert estimates suggest.

Of the seven operations, three launches of Zenit-3SL rocket carriers were carried out by the Sea Launch international consortium. These rocket carriers blasted off a sea-based launch pad to put Loral Skynet do Brazil's Telstar 14/Estrela do Sud 1 satellite and U.S. Direc TV-7 and Telstar-18 satellites into orbit.

The other four launches, which were operated by Russian Space Force units, involved Tsiklon-2 and Zenit-2 rocket carriers with Russian Defense Ministry satellites, a Dnepr rocket carrier with scientific satellites for Argentine, France, Saudi Arabia and Italy, and a Tsiklon-3 rocket carrier with a Russian-Ukrainian Sich-1M satellite and Ukraine's KS-5 MF-2 satellite.

Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English

More News in this Category