Ukraine Negotiates Satellite Launch With SpaceX In December - Minister

Ukraine is discussing a joint launch in December of its Sich 2-30 remote sensing satellite with SpaceX, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Uruskyy said on Friday

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2021) Ukraine is discussing a joint launch in December of its Sich 2-30 remote sensing satellite with SpaceX, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Uruskyy said on Friday.

Earlier in the month, the minister said that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered the satellite to be launched to the near-Earth orbit.

"We are actively working with a potential company that provides launch services as it is not that easy. It is a foreign company. We really have a window to launch the device in December with the help from foreign operator SpaceX, with which we are cooperating," Uruskyy said on air on the Ukrainian Perviy Delovoy tv channel.

According to the minister, the satellite is almost ready, needing only a final analysis and launch readiness check.

The Sich 2-30 is designed to obtain digital images of the Earth's terrain and monitor the parameters of the planet's ionosphere.

In January, Zelenskyy responded to SpaceX founder Elon Musk's acknowledgment of Soviet rocket engineer Sergey Korolev by inviting him to visit a Ukrainian museum named after the scientist.