For the last five years, the Ukrainian industry has been without a main strategic document, state priority for developing technologies and financing the space industry. As a result, enterprises were forced to reorient themselves to foreign orders. For example, the Yuzhnoye design bureau is now 90% depend on exports.
Adopting the space program and its proper funding will allow Ukraine to retain the relevant competencies and claim further participation in the global space technology market.
The economic development committee of the Ukrainian parliament approved the first reading of the Space program of Ukraine for 2021-2025.
The new Space program
The state-space agency of Ukraine Volodymyr Taftay noted that the sectoral program will soon have a tangible economic effect.
The new space program of Ukraine is not just a declaration of intentions. Each state penny invested in it should have a real economic effect. It's about projects that recover themselves in a decade and already in five years. It is this pragmatic approach that the state space agency of Ukraine will demonstrate when choosing program executors. By the way, this is one of the space program's innovations. Its performers will not be selected in advance but will be selected on a competitive basis. State-space agency expect that there will be large giant enterprises and new private space companies among the performers, of which there are already many in Ukraine.
The previous space program of Ukraine was designed for 2013-2017.
In 2019, amendments were made to the law on Space Activities, according to which private companies are allowed to carry out activities in the space sector.
The program includes several key projects, in particular:
- Production and launch into a space orbit of 8 satellites to create our own Earth remote sensing system (6 with an extension of 1 meter, one with ultra-high accuracy — 0.3 meters and one with an extension of 7 meters), as well as 2 microsatellites for space exploration;
- Manufacture of rocket engines (Cyclone 4M, Antares);
- Creation of launch vehicle for launching spacecraft;
- Creation of launching mini-sea launch station;
- Creation of an engineering model of the lunar module and the beginning of its tests within the framework of the international program of lunar exploration Artemis.
