KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Pavlo Dehtiarenko has held a working meeting at Ukrkosmos State Enterprise to discuss the situation with the implementation as part of international cooperation of the project on the creation of a national satellite communications system and the launch of the first Ukrainian telecommunications satellite Lybid, the agency’s press service has reported.
Dehtiarenko said that the Lybid project “should be implemented despite all difficulties.”
He also familiarized himself with Ukrkosmos infrastructure, paying special attention to the Lybid flight control center.
During his visit to the state enterprise, Dehtiarenko also examined the new promising areas of the enterprise’s work, including the project on the creation of a technological platform for regional TV broadcasting Kraina TV, as well as a DTH platform based on the deep modernization of the enterprise’s teleport equipment, the press service said.
As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev ISS.
The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013 and then to April 2014.
