OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2013. Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov congratulated workers of rocket-space industry of Ukraine on their professional holiday and outlined the prospects for the industry in the near future at a meeting of the Government.

He stressed that one of the priorities of the Government in 2013 arising from the activation of the State Program of Activization of Economics for 2013-2014 is a further development of the space industry in Ukraine and increasing international cooperation in this area.

“Ukraine is the space state recognized by the world, a full partner in the market of space services,” Mykola Azarov stressed.

According to him domestic enterprises play a key role in the implementation of large-scale international space projects: Sea Launch, Land Launch, Cyclone-4, Dnepr, Vega.

Mykola Azarov said that only in 2013 year three rockets of Ukrainian production, Zenith and Dnepr were lunched and two successful launches of Antares rockets (USA), the first stage of which designed and manufactured at the enterprises of Ukraine's space industry, were held; also the successful launch of Vega rocket with Ukrainian engine of 4 stage was held.

PM informed that the President Viktor Yanukovych signed the Law of Ukraine on Approval of the National Scientific and Technical Space Program for 2013-2017 years. The goal is the improving the use of space capabilities to address the pressing challenges of socio-economic, cultural, informational, educational and research development of society, national security and the defense and protection of geopolitical interests.

The program also provides the creation of a system of geoinformation software and monitoring of emergency situation using space information. There will be established the Lybid National Communications Satellite System and planed launch of three spacecrafts: of remote sensing "Sich-2-1", research unit "Mikrosat" and Youth Satellite "UMS-1", which is developed by Ukrainian students.

Mykola Azarov stressed that opportunities for wider implementation of research and development projects on the basis of public-private partnerships were created in the space industry: “The Government decided to attract credit resources to continue the work on the creation of modern space rocket complex under the government guarantees. This project will contribute to the consolidation of Ukraine in the global market space. Total funding of the program provided in the amount of USD 2.6 billion.”

“Purposeful work of the Government will increase production rocketry in the coming years to at least 1.5 times, long-term workload of the industry, the output of Ukraine to new markets, and creating nearly 10 000 additional jobs,” PM noted.