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| The Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket lifts off the launchpad at the NASA Wallops Island test flight facility in Wallops Island, Va., Sept. 18, 2013 (AP photo) |
The launch will take place reportedly in August
Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, Valery Chaly said that Ukraine and the US plan to jointly launch the space rocket Antares.
"We plan to launch the rocket in conjunction with the U. in the coming months", the diplomat said, Ukrainian media report.
Chaly says, Ukraine is among the world's top ten countries in space industry due to cooperation with the US. According to Chaly, since 2008 till recently Kyiv did not manage to hold a joint meeting with the US representatives to negotiate space cooperation.
"I hope it (the launch) will not be sensational", Chaly adds. Recently he says that Ukraine is ready to deepen cooperation with the US in the military-industrial sector to jointly produce lethal weapons.
The Antares project was started in 2013. Ukraine manufactures the basic structure of the first stage for the rocket, designed to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) from Wallops Flight Facility (US). Five test launches were performed so far, four of them were successful.
In 2014, the rocket accident occurred due to a failure in the engine AJ-26 (Aerojet Rocketdyne, United States). Ukrainian engineers had to change the first stage of the rocket so that it could work with completely different engine. This is the RD-181 engine produced in Russia.
"Actively developing international cooperation in space exploration, Ukraine works with the US company Orbital ATK on the Antares project. The launch tests of the upgraded rocket ended in June, all systems and components of the first stage (made by Ukraine) worked smoothly (with no complains). The initial launch of the upgraded rocket is scheduled for August 2016 ", the press service quoted the chairman of the National Space Agency of Ukraine (GKAU) Lubomir Szabados.
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