State Space Agency of Ukraine
The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU; , "Derzhavne kosmichne ahentstvo Ukrayiny", ДКАУ, "DKAU") is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs. Along with the Ukrainian Defense Industry and the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex, it is a major state complex of the national defense industry of Ukraine. The agency was formed in 1992 based on the Soviet space program potential based in Ukraine following dissolution of the Soviet Union. The State Space Agency of Ukraine does not specialize in crewed astronautical programs. It is the second of two direct Soviet space program  descendants. The Ukrainian city of Dnipro, also known as the Rocket City, during Soviet period was one of the Soviet space rocket manufacturing centers, while the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv provided various other technological support. Those remnants of the Soviet space program in Ukraine were reorganized into their own space agency. The agency does not have its own spaceport and until 2014, depended on the resources of the Russian Federal Space Agency (the primary inheritor of the Soviet space program). Before December 9, 2010, the agency was known as Національне космічне агентство України, "НКАУ", the National Space Agency of  Ukraine (NSAU) Before 2014, launches were conducted at Kazakhstan's Baikonur and Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodromes. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, launches were conducted on Sea Launch's floating platform, which was soon mothballed. SSAU has ground control and tracking facilities in Kyiv and a control center in Dunaivtsi (Khmelnytskyi Oblast). Other facilities in Yevpatoria, Crimea due to 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea were forced to be abandoned. Following the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War, the agency is transitioning its cooperation efforts away from Russia with participation in alternative space programs. Ukrainian spacecraft include a few kinds for domestic and  foreign use and international cooperation. Ukraine has supplied Russia with military satellites and their launch vehicles, a unique relationship in the world. Main tasks. SSAU is a civil body in charge of co-ordinating the efforts of government installations, research, and industrial companies (mostly state-owned). Several space-related institutes and industries are directly subordinated to SSAU. However, it is not a united and centralized system immediately participating in all stages and details of space programs (like NASA in the United States). A special space force in the military of Ukraine is also absent. The agency oversees launch vehicle and  satellite programs, co-operative programs with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, the European Space Agency, NASA, and commercial ventures. International participation includes Sea Launch and the Galileo positioning system. Space program. Space activities in Ukraine have been pursued over a 10-year span in strict accordance with National Space Programs. Each of them was intended to address the relevant current issues to preserve and further develop the space potential of Ukraine. The First Program (1993–1997) was called upon to keep up the research and industrial space-related potentiality for the benefit of the national economy and state security as  well as to be able to break into the international market of space services. The Second Program (1998–2002) was aimed at creating an internal market of space services, conquering the international space markets by presenting in-house products and services (including launch complexes and spacecraft, space-acquired data, space system components) and integrating Ukraine into the worldwide space community. The National Space Program of Ukraine for 2003-2007 (NSPU), which was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the Parliament of Ukraine) on October 24, 2002, outlines the main goals, assignments, priorities, and methods of maintaining space activity in Ukraine . The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers announced its plans on 13 April 2007 to allocate 312 million euros to the National Space Program for 2007-2011. Specific programs Goals of the program History. The agency is a minor descendant of the Soviet space program that was passed mostly to the Russian Federal Space Agency. The agency took over all the former Soviet defense industrial complex that was located on the territory of Ukraine. The space industry of Ukraine started in 1937 when a group of scientists led by Heorhiy Proskura launched a large stratospheric rocket near Kharkiv. In 1954, the Soviet  government transformed the car producer Yuzhmash (Dnipropetrovsk) into a rocket company. Since that time, the city of Dnipropetrovsk has been known in the Anglophone world as the Soviet Rocket City. As of April 2009, the Ukrainian National Space Agency was planning to launch a Ukrainian communications satellite by September 2011 and a Sich-2 before the end of 2011. The Ukrainian built RD-843 engine is used for the upper stage of the European Vega rocket. The first stage of the U.S. Antares rocket was developed by the Yuznoye SDO and produced by Yuzhmash. National enterprises of the space industry. Most of  the enterprises are located in Dnipro or Kyiv Launch capabilities. Launch vehicles. Ukraine continues further development and modernization of launch vehicles that were created during the Soviet period primarily Cyclone and Zenith. There also was an attempt to redesign a former intercontinental ballistic missile as Dnepr rocket. Almost all its launch vehicles are heavily dependent on Russian components. During 1991-2007, a total of 97 launches of Ukrainian LV were conducted, including, but not limited to launches on the Sea Launch mobile launch pad. In 2006 Ukrainian launch vehicles accounted for 12% of all launches into space in the world . Ukrainian companies Yuzhnoye Design Office and Yuzhmash have engineered and produced seven types of launch vehicles. Adding strapon boosters to launch vehicles may expand the family of Mayak, which is the latest launch vehicle developed. In use. Statistics of Launches of LVs produced in cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises. State Space Agency of Ukraine Svityaz project. The Svityaz, Oril and Sura aerospace rocket complexes (ASRC) is intended for launching of various spacecraft (SC) into circular, elliptic and high-altitude circular, including the geostationary (GSO), orbits. Svityaz ASC represents a unique system that allows launch of spacecraft without utilization of complicated ground  infrastructure. The Svityaz is launched directly from a modified version of An-225 Mriya, a Ukrainian airplane and airplane carrier that is currently the largest one in the world. Modified Mriya that will be used to carry Svityaz has been designated a code of An-225-100. The aircraft is equipped with special devices to secure the LV above the fuselage. The operators and onboard equipment are located in the pressure-tight cabins. The Svityaz LV is being created on the basis of units, aggregates and systems of Zenit LV. It consists of three stages of non-toxic propellants — liquid oxygen and  kerosene. The launch vehicle would be injected into the geostationary orbit using a solid-propellant apogee stage. Sea Launch project. Sea Launch was joint venture space transportation company, partially owned by companies in Ukraine which handle operations for the National Space Agency. Sea Launch offered a mobile sea platform, used for spacecraft launches of commercial payloads on specialized Ukrainian Zenit 3SL rockets. The main advantage of the floating cosmodrome is its placement directly on the equator. It allows taking the greatest advantage of Earth's rotation to deliver payloads into orbit at low expense. Within the framework of the project  the space rocket complex was developed, which consists of four components: Sea Launch mothballed its ships and put operations on long-term hiatus in 2014. Spaceports. Ukraine does not have its own spaceports, but leases elsewhere. Satellite programs. Ukraine produced the Sich and Okean Earth observation satellites, as well as a few other types of satellites and the Coronas solar observatory in cooperation with Russia. The SSAU currently is working on further Sich series satellites: Sich-2M, Sich-3, Sich-3-O and Sich-3-P; Lybid M and an Ukrselena satellite to fly around the Moon in 2017 (postponed). The optical satellite  was successfully launched on 13 January 2022. Human flights. Prior to Ukraine's independence, several Ukrainians flew in space under the Soviet flag. Ukrainian Pavlo Popovych was the fourth cosmonaut in space, in 1962. The first Ukrainian to fly in space under the Ukrainian flag was Leonid K. Kadenyuk on 13 May 1997. He was a payload specialist on NASA's STS-87 Space Shuttle mission. It was an international spaceflight mission, involving crew members from NASA (USA), NSAU (Ukraine) and NASDA (Japan).