Showing posts with label Ukraine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ukraine. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 7

Ukrainian Rockets in the US

Ukraine is proposing its rocket industry help replace the current Russian-built RD-180 rockets being used by the US space industry (much to the chagrin of Senator John McCain).

According to a TASS news story, Lyubomyr Sabadosh, head of Ukraine's State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), recently stated:
We have proposes using our capabilities for implementing a joint design solution for the production of a liquid propellant engine, which is currently purchased in the Russian Federation. Our partners have an understanding that it's quite a complicated task, but we can cope with it, and the discussion will take place at the level of professional experts."
While the US has plans to build its own rocket engine, a deal with Ukraine gives us more breathing room while also helping a partner in the region looking for some help. One can only hope US officials give this proposal serious consideration. 

Saturday, June 6

New York Times: Maintain the Russian Rocket Ban

It is nice to see the Russian rocket ban is getting more attention these days, as in this New York Times editorial:
The core problem is that the United States let itself become dependent on Russian rocket engines for national security missions. After the Cold War, it made sense to encourage cooperation between the nations and offer opportunities to Russian scientists and technicians so they would be less likely to sell their skills to Iran and North Korea. But in recent years, Mr. Putin has become increasingly at odds with the United States. Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of the defense giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing also known as ULA, has become the Pentagon’s primary rocket maker and gets its engines from NPO Energomash, a Russian company that reportedly has close ties to Mr. Putin...After leaning on France to cancel the sale of two ships to Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, the United States can hardly insist on continuing to buy national security hardware from one of Mr. Putin’s cronies.
Sadly, the Obama administration seems to be going soft on sanctions, which is ridiculous since it has already gone soft on a military option.  What is left?  Someday I hope relations with a new Russian regime improve, but in the meantime it is in the interest of the United States to build its own rockets for its own missions. 

Image Credit:  Photo taken by 23-year old Lana Sator who sneaked into the Russian Energomash's manufacturing plant.
ana Sator in the Energomash plant.
ana Sator in the Energomash plant.

Tuesday, February 17

Does Ukraine Still Have a Space Industry?

Last week I read a piece in Parabolic Arc stating the Ukrainian space industry was close to collapsing. The article relates to Yazhmash, the rocket manufacturer and cornerstone of the Ukrainian space industry, and its recent notice about problems with orders from the Russians.  The article quotes the company's press release:
Yuzhmash
Yuzhmash
Factor of negative trends – landslide production cutbacks due to rupture of ties with traditional customers, who provided most of the orders.

The actual bankruptcy of the enterprise will result in the loss of Ukraine’s status as a space power, failure of the obligations of the State to enter into international agreements, irreversible loss of proven technologies.
At present, the SE “PA YuMZ behalf AM Makarov” is a participant in the high-tech large-scale international projects: "Sea Launch","Land Launch", "Taurus II / Antares", "Dnepr","Cyclone-4", "Vega". 
For instance, Orbital Science's uses the Antares rocket that was built in cooperation with Yazhmash.

Russian has been threatening for some time to find substitutes for the Ukrainian rocket parts, with the Moscow Times noting:
Russia's dependence on Ukrainian defense imports is a by-product of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. When the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became an independent state in 1991, Kiev found itself in possession of vital Soviet-era defense industry assets such as the Yuzhmash factory in Eastern Ukraine, which produces space rockets, satellites and missiles along with machinery for civilian uses.
Bloomberg Business highlighted the company's plight, stating:
Sales to Russia plummeted from $1.7 billion in 2011 to only $28 million last year, Yuzhmash said in a statement posted on its website last month. The Dnepropetrovsk-based company owes some $140 million in back wages to its 15,000 workers and partially suspended manufacturing operations until late February. The company did not respond to calls from Bloomberg Business.
Russia has already caused enough problems for Ukraine, and now this.  Maybe the US government can find a way to bring Ukraine into its military and civilian space industry while continuing to exclude the Russians.
At present, the SE “PA YuMZ behalf AM Makarov” is a participant in the high-tech large-scale international projects:” Sea Launch “,” Land Launch »,« Taurus II / Antares »,« Dnepr “,” Cyclone-4 »,« Vega ». - See more at: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/02/10/ukraine-space-industry-verge-collapse/#sthash.TyzNMQhQ.dpuIf you go to the company's website you will fin
Factor of negative trends – landslide production cutbacks due to rupture of ties with traditional customers, who provided most of the orders.
The actual bankruptcy of the enterprise will result in the loss of Ukraine’s status as a space power, failure of the obligations of the State to enter into international agreements, irreversible loss of proven technologies.
- See more at: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/02/10/ukraine-space-industry-verge-collapse/#sthash.4nIVIOJO.dpuf
Factor of negative trends – landslide production cutbacks due to rupture of ties with traditional customers, who provided most of the orders.
The actual bankruptcy of the enterprise will result in the loss of Ukraine’s status as a space power, failure of the obligations of the State to enter into international agreements, irreversible loss of proven technologies.
- See more at: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/02/10/ukraine-space-industry-verge-collapse/#sthash.4nIVIOJO.dpuf

Friday, December 5

Good News for U.S. Rocket Makers

With the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, it was only a matter of time before Congress finally understood that our continued reliance of Russia for many parts of our space program, including Rocket parts, was untenable.  According to Space News, the Hill is close to an agreement on banning Russian rocket engines:

U.S. lawmakers have finalized legislation that will prohibit the future use of a Russian-built rocket engine that is routinely used to launch U.S. national security satellites. 

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, recently finalized by House and Senate negotiators, also requires the Defense Department to replace the Russian engine, dubbed RD-180, with an American-made propulsion system by 2019.
This could be great news for SpaceX, or it could mean another large government-funded project to build a new rocket engine.  I prefer we use the private-sector talents we have at the moment to keep things moving. The Pentagon appears to agree.  In a letter to Congress, the Department of Defense stated:

The Department firmly believes that it should not allocate resources to develop yet another engine that would fail to be integrated into a viable launcher, especially when it can meet the assured access to space requirement with existing privately funded vehicle families.
I am glad the Congress is moving in this direction. It may be disruptive for a period, but the Department of Defense still has a few years worth of Russian rockets in storage to provide it with some breathing space.  

Saturday, March 15

Will Ukranian Issues Impact the US-Russian Cooperation in Space?

The recent invasion of the Crimean peninsula by Russian forces does not bode well for future cooperation between the United States and Russia, and yet the International Space Station (ISS) depends on such cooperation. In fact, until the U.S. commercial sector can regularly resupply the ISS, NASA is completely dependent on the Russians to move people and cargo to and from the station.  Russia has also contributed multiple modules to the ISS, such as the Zvezda Service Module (pictured above) containing living quarters for the crew, as well as extra Soyuz crew vehicle permanently docked to the ISS in case of emergencies. 

Earlier this month, Spaceflight Now highlighted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's statement on the issue:
"I think people lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," he said. "I don't think it's an insignificant fact that we are starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not trivial."
Hopefully, the ISS can stay above the political fray, but given our restrictions on scientific cooperation with the Chinese, the Congress has shown it will put politics ahead of science.  These are the risks of such cooperation, as we saw with the Sochi Olympics as well.  When friendships fray, much hangs in the balance.

Tuesday, January 7

Abandoned Astronomy

Like the wrecked Mayan remains one finds centuries later in the Latin American jungle, this Bloomington, Indiana, space observatory represents time moving on even with the most modern of endeavors.  The Knightridge Space Observatory pictured above is a four-ton telescope built in 1936 and 1937.  You can see many more images like this one and the one below (the Pip Ivan Observatory in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine) at io9.