lenta-ua.net
The launch into orbit of Ukraine's first telecommunications satellite "Lybid" and the start of its operation is scheduled for the second half of 2018, Chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) Pavlo Degtiarenko said in an interview with the Cabinet's official gazette Uriadoviy Kurier, Business Censor reports.
"Critical issues on the project implementation have not been solved for a long time, which led to the accumulation of a complex of problems that now constitute a sufficiently serious challenge that the agency must deal with. We found the Cabinet's support for further financing of the project's completion," Degtiarenko said, according to Business Censor.
"We expect that the planned steps will allow us to carry out the entire range of tasks necessary for Ukraine to finally get its own communication satellite up in the orbit in the second half of 2018," he added.
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The project was financed at the expense of a loan from the Canadian Export Agency EDS, worth $254.6 million, raised in 2009 under state guarantees.
The implementation of the project has been in jeopardy due to the annexation of Crimea and the loss by the Ukrainian side of the remaining ground infrastructure located on the peninsula.