A European Vega light launch vehicle, which has a Ukrainian-made engine, has successfully put the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite into orbit.
The Vega rocket lifted away at 00:20 Kyiv time on August 23 from the Guiana Space Centre to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, France (South America), the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) said on its website. It was the twelfth launch under the Vega program and the first one this year.
Built by the European concern Airbus, the Aeolus satellite weighs 1.35 tonnes and is designed for long-range wind-mapping, it will probe the atmosphere with pioneering ultraviolet laser pulses. It is the first satellite that is able to measure wind speeds, using a laser technology for creating dynamic 3D maps of the earth’s surface winds. Aeolus is equipped with a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instrument called Aladin, which uses the Doppler effect for determining wind speeds at various altitudes. The satellite is to provide reliable information about global wind conditions. The information is necessary for meteorologists to make better forecasts and for climatologists to enhance the understanding of tropical dynamics and processes relevant to climate variability. The satellite will operate for three years.
The Vega launch vehicle was developed by ESA together the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It is designed to launch small payloads. The launcher is capable of delivering a reference payload mass of up to 1,500 kg into a circular sun-synchronous orbit of 700 km altitude.
The RD-848P engine for the fourth stage of the rocket was developed by Ukraine’s state-owned Pivdenne Design Bureau (Dnipro) and manufactured by Dnipro-based state-owned Pivdenmash. The first successful launch was in February 2012. From May 2013, ESA began using a new launch vehicle on a commercial basis.
In July 2017, Ukrainian participants in the Vega program extended the contract signed in 2012 with the European subcontractor, Avio SpA, for deliveries of engines for the Vega launch vehicle through 2020.
Ukraine’s government and ESA signed a cooperation agreement concerning space cooperation for peaceful purposes in 2008. Some 17 European countries are ESA members.
Ukraine is currently preparing to create an information hub in accordance with a contract signed in May 2018 with the EU on cooperation in the Copernicus Earth observation program.
EARTH EXPLORER AEOLUS, ESA'S, ORBIT, SATELLITE, UKRAINIAN ENGINE, VEGA
The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine has recognized match poker as a sport in Ukraine.
According to Ministry of Youth and Sports order No. 3780 of August 16, which was made available to Interfax-Ukraine, “match poker” is recognized as a sport in Ukraine.
The respective point was entrusted to be included section II of the register of recognized sports in Ukraine, approved by the ministry’s order No. 639 of March 11, 2015.
The United States intends to provide Ukraine with $78 million in additional international technical assistance, reads a statement posted the website of Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT).
“The Cabinet of Ministers on August 22 approved the signing of additional agreements to the September 14, 2014 agreement on the fulfillment of a task in the sphere of development between the governments of Ukraine and the United States of America on improving transparency of governance and stable economic development. The respective orders were prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in connection with the intentions of the U.S. government to provide additional funds for the implementation of the goals envisaged by the agreement,” the report says.
In particular, the U.S. government intends to allocate $54.4 million in additional international technical assistance to ensure the accessibility of investment activities to the middle class in Ukraine, strengthen the potential of the private sector of the economy and improve energy efficiency and energy security, the ministry said.
“Thus, the total amount of technical assistance for these goals under the agreement, taking into account additional funds, will exceed $139 million,” the ministry added.
According to the report, the signing of additional agreements also provides for the provision of $23.6 million for governance reform. In particular, this includes bringing Ukrainian legislation into line with European standards, improving the functions of public oversight, as well as increasing the level of government accountability. For these purposes, the total amount of technical assistance, taking into account additional funds, will be $62 million, the press release reads.
Ukraine’s railways operator Ukrzaliznytsia in January-August 2018 (as of August 23) bought 2,287 freight cars, including 450 from third-party manufacturers, the company’s press service reported citing Finance and Economics Director Andriy Riazantsev.
“Ukrzaliznytsia’s investment in rolling stock upgrades is ahead of the company’s income. This year we have already spent UAH 1.5 billion more in investment than the sum of total deductions from freight transportation tariffs to our investment account,” he said.
In general, since early 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia has already purchased 2,287 freight cars, of which 1,837 wagons built on the company’s own production facilities.
According to Riazantsev, 20% of over 27,000 open-top wagons forming the company’s working rolling stock is high-quality equipment.
At the same time, the company says Ukrzaliznytsia’s rolling stock in the Ukrainian market of transportation by rail accounts for only 40% of the total stock available.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia in the six months of 2018 built 1,740 freight cars, or more than 34% of the total number of all built in this period in Ukraine.
In 2017, it bought 2,721 freight cars, including 2,606 built at the company’s own production facilities.
The volume of completed construction works in Ukraine in July 2018 increased by 9.7% compared to July 2017, whereas growth in June 2018 from June 2017 was 2.2%.
The report does not include data from temporarily occupied territories, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and partly Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said.
The volume of completed construction works in July 2018 from June 2018 decreased by 5.8% (according to seasonally adjusted data, it decreased by 3.6%), whereas there was a 12.3% increase in June 2018 from May 2018.
Residential and nonresidential construction declined in July 2018 from July 2017, while the construction of engineering facilities was on the rise. According to unadjusted data, residential construction saw a 9.1% decline, while the decline of nonresidential construction was 2.6%. The construction of engineering facilities increased by 26.2%.
The construction of residential buildings in July 2018 from June 2018 decreased by 17.3%, the construction of nonresidential buildings fell by 2.4%, engineering facilities by 2.9%.
In January-July 2018, a decrease in construction work compared to the same period of 2017 was recorded in 10 regions of Ukraine, including in Luhansk (by 45.8%, to UAH 184.1 million), Sumy (by 22%, to UAH 523.8 million), Kirovohrad (by 18%, to UAH 586.5 million) regions.
The highest increase in completed construction works in the seven months was recorded in Ivano-Frankivsk (by 33.4%, to UAH 1.5 billion) and Odesa (by 54.5%, to UAH 8.2 billion) regions.
In Kyiv, the volume of construction work in the seven months fell by 2.9%, to UAH 14 billion.
The city of Dnipro is to build an industrial park, Innovation Forpost, on 61.4 ha with UAH 2.7 billion in investment, the Dnipro Development Agency has said.
“All procedures for Innovation Forpost industrial park blueprints were completed in July 2018. A total of UAH 2.7 billion in investment will be raised for the industrial park within five years, 9.93% of this amount is planned to be taken from the city’s budget, 9.45% from the state, the rest of the financing are funds of investors and the management company,” Director of the Dnipro Development Agency Volodymyr Panchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Deputy Mayor of Dnipro Jaanika Merilo, Innovation Forpost will be located 4 km from the city center on an area formerly owned by Interpipe’s plant. The park will house offices and R&D centers, an exhibition complex with an innovative science museum, a HypeUA testing site, business incubators, training campuses, residential blocks with a kindergarten, a hotel and green areas.
Panchenko adds that the development of transport and engineering networks will begin in October 2018. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2019, and the first facilities of the park will be put into operation by the end of the year.
“The first facilities of the industrial park will be the front office of the industrial park, the Industrial EXPO exhibition center, offices and the prototyping center as part of the business incubator, urban amenities,” Panchenko said.
According to him, the agency is preparing separate investment projects and investors are being selected under each of them.
“We already have requests for four project sites in the production area, companies come from the innovation sphere. For example, today one company plans to produce commodities by printing products on 3D printers. There are also investors interested in building an expo center on 12,000 square meters. A trade and service area is an attracting project too,” he said.
The Innovation Forpost project envisages the construction of new buildings (production and office buildings, maintenance complexes) and the reconstruction of existing ones. For example, the foundry is planned to be transformed into exhibition art space.
According to agency, the park will create 5,000 jobs.
“For us, this site is one of ten that we plan to launch in Dnipro. Investors have Ukrainian and foreign roots. It is wrong to think that they do not want to invest, it’s just necessary to create favorable conditions,” Panchenko said.
According to him, not only budget funds and private investment but also grants can be used to finance a project. In particular, the Dnipro Development Agency this year has won two European grants worth UAH 22 million.
