The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the concept of the nationwide target scientific and technical space program of Ukraine for 2021-2025.

Commenting on this decision, Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Urusky said that the next step should be the adoption of this project.

“Finally, the situation in the industry will be moved from a dead center, because for the past few years it has actually been in a frozen state, not understanding either its priorities or the conditions for development,” Urusky wrote on his Facebook page.

The explanatory note to the document states that it is planned to allocate about UAH 30 billion for the implementation of the program.

($ 1.06 billion), half of this amount will be provided by the state.

It is noted that the implementation of the project should lead to the creation of 2 thousand high-tech jobs in the industry.

The concept, in particular, provides for the creation of a "national space observation system" based on Ukrainian and foreign orbital means, as well as the development of a satellite constellation.

According to the authorities, the adoption of the program should have a positive effect on the implementation of projects to create "promising light launch vehicles", the study of near-earth space, as well as the development of technologies for Ukraine's participation in international space projects.

The cosmic status quo

Oleg Urusky, the current minister for strategic industries of Ukraine, said in December 2019 that the government intends to reform the space industry and create a specialized holding company that will unite some enterprises of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU).

In the spring of 2020, the head of the agency, Vladimir Usov, stressed that if the country's space industry is not reformed in the next two years, it will be impossible to restore it.

“If this situation is not changed within a year or two years, then there will be no potential, capacities, and people who still remain and it will be impossible to restore what was lost.

There is still a window of opportunity, but it can close quickly enough.

If today we do not sharply carry out reforms in the space industry, then in a few years as such it will not exist in Ukraine, ”Usov said in an interview with UNIAN.

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  • © SE PA Yuzhmash

Then he stressed that this industry is financed "ad hoc" due to the lack of a space program.

“Money is never received in full, rarely even 50%, so we can say that this year the budget practically does not provide for the development of the space industry.

Exclusively for the salary fund, some kind of rent, storage.

Neither investment in science, nor in development, nor in the creation of new models of spacecraft - there is no money for anything, ”Usov said.

It is worth noting that he worked as head of the SSAU for a little more than nine months - he was fired in November 2020.

Prior to that, Rada deputies from different factions collected signatures under an appeal to the government asking for his resignation, accusing Usov of the lack of a strategy for the development of the enterprise and any achievements in work, as well as of possible involvement in corruption schemes.

SSAU manages a number of enterprises and research centers, including the Yuzhnoye design bureau named after Yangel, the Makarov Yuzhny machine-building plant, the Arsenal plant in Kiev, the Khartron plant in Kharkov and others.

Failed projects

In the post-Soviet era, Ukraine several times tried to regain its space power status with the help of various high-profile projects, but most of them ended in failures.

For example, in 2003 Brazil and Ukraine signed an agreement on long-term cooperation in the commercial use of the Alcantara cosmodrome, for which it was necessary to develop Cyclone-4 launch vehicles.

The Brazilian side provided the creation of a common infrastructure necessary for the delivery and launch of missiles.

In turn, Ukrainian state-owned enterprises - the Yuzhmash plant, the Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Dneprotyazhmash company - were responsible for the development of the launch vehicle, the preparation of the production base and the construction of the launch complex.

For the implementation of the project and servicing loans attracted from 2004 to 2011 under government guarantees, Ukraine, according to media reports, spent almost 4 billion UAH.

The launch of the Ukrainian Cyclone, scheduled for 2010, has been repeatedly postponed.

The rocket had not been launched by 2015, and Brasilia unilaterally terminated cooperation with Kiev.

At the same time, the agreement concluded in 2003 did not provide for any sanctions for non-compliance by the parties, so the Brazilian Space Agency refused to negotiate with Kiev on compensation for costs due to the termination of cooperation.

In 2018, Ukraine turned to Australia with a proposal for the joint construction of cosmodromes from which Cyclone rockets could be launched.

Despite the words of the Ukrainian ambassador that the country "could start (launch missiles. - 

RT

) tomorrow morning, if it had a site," the Australian authorities showed no interest in the project.

In October 2019, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he proposed to Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonar to restart the project to use the Alcantara cosmodrome.

It is worth noting that the Ukrainian leader recently tried to strengthen the republic's media status as a space power by inviting the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, to visit the Museum of Cosmonautics in the homeland of the outstanding Soviet designer Sergei Korolev in Zhitomir.

Shortly before this, Musk on his Twitter expressed admiration for Korolev's personality, writing a message about this in Russian.

At the same time, Zelensky called Korolev "a great Ukrainian scientist."

However, experts remind that at one time Korolev transferred from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute to the Moscow Bauman Higher Technical School, and his entire career as a scientist was built in the capital of the USSR.

Experts also draw attention to the fact that, despite the declared ambitions, the rocket-technical industry of Ukraine is in a depressing state.

Thus, the Yuzhmash plant in Soviet times was one of its leading enterprises.

As of 1990, the enterprise annually produced up to 100 missiles.

Since 1995, the plant has been producing Zenit missiles for the Sea Launch project.

However, in 2014, their production was suspended.

In 2017, Yuri Radchenko, who at that time was the head of the SSAU, said that Yuzhmash's capacity was idle, and from 2014 to 2017 not a single missile was fired.

In the spring of 2020, the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs reported that the total debt of the enterprise as of the end of 2019 was about UAH 375 million.

In order to avoid mass layoffs in production, they were forced to reduce the working week, noted the USPP.

  • Zenit-3SL launch vehicle

  • © yuzhmash.com

At the same time, according to analysts, the amount of funds that are proposed to be allocated within the framework of the concept of a five-year space program will hardly be enough for a serious development of the industry.

“You shouldn't assume that $ 1 billion will plug all the holes, allow you to buy new equipment, bring back scientific personnel from abroad, create departments in leading Ukrainian universities that could prepare young people for work in the industry, or thanks to this money, salaries will suddenly increase, so that people want to work in this area.

Most likely, this billion will allow only cosmetic repairs of enterprises, since most of the money will go to solving the personal problems of individual managers, including opening accounts abroad, "military expert Yuri Knutov explained in an interview with RT.

“This is more of a political action, calculated to raise Zelensky's rating, to demonstrate that Ukraine is once again becoming a space power thanks to him,” he added.

Rostislav Ishchenko, President of the Center for Systems Analysis and Forecasting, shares this opinion.

“If we are talking about how to restore the economy, industry and implement a space program on this basis, then hundreds of billions of dollars are needed, since we will have to invest $ 100-150 billion over ten years. Considering that the Kiev authorities are not able to independently translate into life their own economic program, they are unlikely to be able to restore the space industry, "- says the political scientist.

In turn, Yuriy Knutov recalled that the crisis state of the rocket and space sphere of Ukraine is associated with the loss of enterprises, a scientific school, specialists in universities that are capable of giving young people relevant knowledge, with the departure of scientific personnel to Iraq and the DPRK.

“It is also connected with the breakdown of scientific and technical cooperation with Russia.

If these relations were preserved, Moscow would buy rockets for Sea Launch and other units, the enterprises would remain afloat, the country could to some extent develop the space industry, ”Knutov stated.