The Ukrainian-U.S. Antares launcher rocketed into orbit, deploying a ship carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine has reported.
“The launch vehicle rocketed into orbit the Cygnus supply ship, carrying about 3,629 kg of NASA payload to the International Space Station – packaging for the crew, materials for scientific research, equipment for the station and spacewalk, computers and components, CubeSats,” the agency said last week.
The launcher took off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, the United States at 19:36 Kyiv time on February 20 and it is the first launch of the Antares LV in 2021.
The preparation of launch vehicle Antares, its tests and start-up were carried out by specialists of SOE Design Bureau Pivdenne (Yuzhnoye), SOE Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash) and Hartron-Arkos scientific-production association. From the territory of Design Bureau Pivdenne, the launch support was provided in real time, telemetric information was processed.
According to the space agency, the Antares launch vehicle consists of two stages and the Cygnus supply ship (third stage). The main design of the first stage was developed by SOE Design Bureau Pivdenne and manufactured by SOE Pivdenmash in cooperation with the Ukrainian enterprises Khartron-Arkos (Kharkiv), Kyivprylad (Kyiv), Hartron-UCOM (Zaporizhia), CHEZARA (Chernihiv Plant of radio equipment), RAPID (Cherhiniv-based sensor enterprise), etc. The main designer of the launch vehicle is U.S. Northrop Grumman.
“I hope that soon the Ukrainian cooperation of enterprises will produce a fully domestic product – a medium-class launch vehicle, which will become the flagship of our rocket industry for the coming years,” acting head of the agency Mykhailo Lev said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has introduced into action the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, by which Ukraine joined the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Yemen.
The decision provides for the application of sanctions against individuals. The Cabinet of Ministers and the Security Service of Ukraine are instructed to ensure the implementation and monitoring of the effectiveness of the sanctions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to inform the UN Security Council and the competent authorities of the European Union, the website of the President of Ukraine reported on Saturday.
A personal list of persons against whom sanctions have been imposed is contained in the order of the Cabinet of Ministers dated January 20, 2021.
The state concern Ukroboronprom presents new military equipment and armaments of its own production at the International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX 2021) in Abu Dhabi (the United Arab Emirates), which opened on Sunday.
“The exhibition will showcase a number of promising developments and products of the concern, such as a model of the Neptune ground anti-ship missile system and Vilkha high-precision jet system from the Luch design bureau,” the press service of Ukroboronprom said.
Neptune is a modern Ukrainian model of armament, which guided missiles are inconspicuous to enemy radars and are capable of destroying both ships and ground targets.
The Vilkha high-precision heavy multiple rocket launcher is considered one of the most powerful in the world in its class.
“Also, the visitors of the exhibition are offered natural samples of the Skif and Corsar anti-tank missile systems and a model of the Sokol-300 reconnaissance and strike drone, the concern said in the statement.
The concern said that IDEX-2021 will present the capabilities of the Oplot tank, which is the best in the world in a number of characteristics, the BTR-4 combat vehicle and other advanced developments of the concern member companies.
In total, more than a dozen natural and mock-up (large-scale) samples of military and dual-use products are planned to be presented at the Ukrainian stand. During the exhibition, a number of talks are planned with official delegations of various countries and international companies on further partnerships.
The exhibition will end on February 25. The concern’s delegation is headed by its General Director Yuriy Husev. The head of the Ukrainian delegation is Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Urusky.
IDEX is one of the largest international military exhibitions, which is held under the auspices of the President of the United Arab Emirates.
More than 900 leading defense companies from 59 countries will present their stands in the pavilions of the National Exhibition Center in Abu Dhabi.
Ukraine is represented by nine defense industry enterprises, seven of which are part of Ukroboronprom.
Foreign trade turnover by the most important positions in Jan-Nov 2020 (export).
President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen recalled the difficulties with the launch of the production of vaccines against COVID-19.
“We all underestimated the difficulty for the industry of ramping up a complex mass vaccine production programme from nothing. I wish I had known that last autumn. I would still have been very pleased about the researchers coming up with the vaccine so much faster than predicted, but I would have warned that it could take several more months before it was available in large quantities,” she said in an interview with Die Zeit on Thursday.
Von der Leyen noted that delays in the terms of vaccinations are due to the EU’s careful approach to the vaccine registration process.
She stressed that at first, manufacturers could not fulfill large orders that were formed by different countries.
“Larger initial orders would have been impossible to honour – even if we had paid out billions extra for this. The current bottlenecks are due to the fact that producing a vaccine is extremely complicated and the start is often shaky. There is a limited supply of raw materials, supply chains for the completely new mRNA technology need to be established and, in addition, demand for these substances from all corners of the globe is extremely high,” Von der Leyen said.
She recalled that in early January, European countries faced a shortage of vaccines, so they increased their orders.
As reported, Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov left for to India to conduct direct negotiations with manufacturers on additional volumes of Oxford/AstraZeneca and NovaVax vaccines in 2021-2022 to the already contracted 12 million doses.
Structure of export of services for 9 months of 2020 (graphically).
