The launch of the first Ukrainian microsatellite is postponed - the promised money was not given from the budget

For the first time in 25 years of independence, the space sector in Ukraine is in such a state of decline.

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This was stated in an interview with the Kyiv agency UNN by the director of the Institute of Space Research of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Space Agency of Ukraine Oleg Fedorov.

“Summarizing the activities of the Space Research Institute, I must say that during all the years of independence, such a state in which Ukrainian science and the space industry finds itself now has never existed. This has never happened before when funding was zero. All our activities are under threat. Funding for the Academy (NAS – ed.) has been reduced, people receive incomplete salaries, and funding for the space program is now zero. 250 million UAH. allocated in this year's budget. Some of it is in the space agency's treasury accounts, but the Treasury Department has yet to sign off on funding distributions. Therefore, all our achievements and all our projects are under threat,” says the scientist.

In particular, according to him, due to lack of money, the unique project of the first Ukrainian microsatellite is under threat.

“We hoped that the first Ukrainian microsatellite would be launched at the beginning of 2018. This is the first scientific and applied project to study dynamic processes in near space, which is of exceptional importance for understanding the physics of processes and for applications in telecommunications and navigation. The equipment was created by Ukrainian specialists, these are Lviv and Dnepropetrovsk scientists. Our colleagues from Poland and Bulgaria work with us as a team. But if there is such funding, we are unlikely to implement this project. The amount provided for in the budget is UAH 30 million. However, we have not received them yet,” said the director of the Space Research Institute.