The American super-heavy launch vehicle SLS (Space Launch System) with the Orion spacecraft, which is to fly to the Moon in a test unmanned mode as part of the Artemis 1 (Artemis-1) mission, will start on Monday from spaceport in Florida, according to NASA.
The launch is scheduled to take place in a two-hour time window that opens at 08:33 US East Coast Time (15:33 Moscow time) from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B.
As part of the Artemis 1 test mission, the Orion spacecraft will fly unmanned to the Moon, where it will orbit for several weeks. The ship will then return to Earth. The entire mission will last 42 days. The Orion descent capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on October 10th.
The test flight should demonstrate the readiness of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft for a manned mission.
The SLS launch vehicle developed by Boeing Corporation is currently the most powerful in the world. In the basic version, it is capable of launching 95 tons of payload into orbit. Promising modifications of the launch vehicle should provide an increase in carrying capacity up to 130 tons.
According to the plan of the American space agency, in 2024 it is planned to carry out the Artemis 2 mission, in which a crew of four astronauts will go to the moon. The manned spacecraft will have to fly around the Earth’s natural satellite. After a long space flight, the Orion descent ship with astronauts will splash down in the Pacific Ocean. As part of the Artemis 3 mission, which is currently scheduled for 2025, US astronauts will have to land on the surface of the moon.
The Artemis program was made public in September 2020. Its main goal is the return, 53 years after the last mission, of American astronauts to the lunar surface, the construction of a near-lunar station and the preparation of conditions for a possible colonization of the Moon in the future.
According to the American experts from The Planetary Society, NASA has been developing the SLS launch vehicle and the Orion spacecraft for 17 years. For these purposes, the agency spent about $50 billion.
From September 1, 2022, Ukrainian carriers will be able to travel to Moldova under new simplified rules, according to the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
“After the signing of the “transport visa-free regime” with the countries of the European Union, Moldova remained the only state on our borders with which the permit regime for Ukrainian carriers was not completely abolished. Given the large volume of cargo that is now going towards Moldova, the signing of a bilateral protocol removes the risk of stopping our exports,” the ministry stressed.
The permit regime will be maintained for non-scheduled passenger traffic (next year, the parties will exchange 2,200 permits) and for traffic to or from third countries (Ukraine will receive 10,000 permits by 2023).
“Bilateral cancellation of permits for international freight transportation, the opening a few days ago of the Berezyne-Basarabeasca railway section, which has not been operating for more than 20 years, are excellent examples of cooperation in the transport sector, strengthening interaction between Ukraine and Moldova. Now our task is to make the most of new opportunities for strengthening the economies of our countries in the face of the threats posed by Russian military aggression and Russian policy in general,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
The international rating agency Fitch Ratings has raised the long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) from “C” to “CC”.
The rating action follows Fitch’s upgrade of Ukraine’s sovereign ratings to ‘CC’ on 17 August 2022. This rating action has a direct impact on UZ’s IDRs as it is considered a state-related entity.
It indicates that the strategic importance of the company for the state increased after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022. Government incentive to support UZ remains strong, with the state providing non-refundable cash grants (UAH 10 billion) to support the company’s core operations. However, EP’s financial resources and cash flows depend more than before the war on the financial performance of the Ukrainian state, the agency also believes.
The rating action did not affect UZ’s standalone credit profile at ‘ccc’.
UZ’s Eurobond ratings are in line with its Long-term foreign currency IDR. Fitch clarifies that Eurobonds accounted for 75% of EP’s debt at the end of 2021.
The share of women in Ukrainian IT has tripled over the past 10 years and stands at 24% as of August 2022, the press service of GlobalLogic reported, based on an internal study of the company.
“According to GlobalLogic, 1,769 women work with the company in Ukraine, which is more than a quarter of all specialists. The average age of specialists is 33 years, but among IT specialists there are also women over the age of 60,” the company said.
According to GlobalLogic statistics, 81% of women in the IT field have technical specialties.
Most of the respondents started their career in the industry as a trainee or junior position, but now they have a professional level of senior, lead or even AVP (junior vice president).
According to the report, a third of the top leadership positions at GlobalLogic are held by women.
IT company “GlobalLogic Ukraine” is the largest software developer in Ukraine. It has offices and more than 4.5 thousand specialists in Kyiv, Kharkov, Lvov and Nikolaev.
Ukraine in January-July this year reduced the import of aluminum ores and concentrate (bauxite) in physical terms by 69.4% compared to the same period last year – up to 938.226 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (STS), during this period, bauxite imports in monetary terms decreased by 66.1% – to $47.330 million.
At the same time, imports were carried out mainly from Guinea (59.94% of supplies in monetary terms), Brazil (27.67%) and Ghana (7.61%).
Ukraine in January-July 2022 did not re-export bauxite.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021 reduced the import of aluminum ores and concentrate (bauxite) in physical terms by 0.1% compared to 2020, to 5 million 114.227 thousand tons. Bauxite imports in monetary terms increased by 4.2% to $236.638 million.
At the same time, imports were carried out mainly from Guinea (59.33% of supplies in monetary terms), Brazil (21.33%) and Ghana (16.8%).
Ukraine in 2021 re-exported bauxite in the amount of 277 tons worth $70 thousand to Belarus (48.57%), Poland (40%) and the Russian Federation (7.14%), while in 2020 255 tons of bauxite were re-exported to Poland for $41 thousand
Bauxites are aluminum ores used as a raw material for the production of alumina, and from it – aluminium. They are also used as fluxes in ferrous metallurgy.
Bauxites are imported to Ukraine by the Nikolaev Alumina Refinery (NGZ), affiliated with the United Company (OK) Russian Aluminum (RusAl, Russia). Alumina is produced from bauxite.
RusAl also owns a stake in the Zaporizhia Aluminum Plant (ZALK) in Ukraine, which stopped producing primary aluminum and alumina.
Ukraine in January-July this year reduced imports of nickel ores and concentrate in physical terms by 57% compared to the same period last year – up to 309.699 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (STS), in monetary terms, imports of nickel ores decreased by 58.3% to $14.112 million.
At the same time, the import was carried out from Guatemala (100% of deliveries in terms of money).
For seven months of 2022, as in January-July 2021, Ukraine did not export and re-export these products.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021 reduced the import of nickel ores and concentrate in physical terms by 20.6% compared to 2020 – to 1 million 235.533 thousand tons. In monetary terms, imports of nickel ores decreased by 22.2% to $58.929 million. Imports were carried out from Guatemala (100% of deliveries in monetary terms).
Last year, Ukraine did not export and re-export these products.
Nickel ore is imported to Ukraine by the Pobuzhsky ferronickel plant (PFC, part of the Solway group).
PFC processes about 1.2 million tons of ore per year.
