Old rockets never die. They just migrate to a different part of the globe. Ukraine’s Cyclone 4 satellite booster — left without a launch site in 2015 following the end of a decade-long partnership to launch it from Brazil’s Alcantara spaceport — has resurfaced. And Nova Scotia, Canada is on the list of possible launch locations. The Canso-Hazel Hill area in Guysborough County has been shortlisted as a future launch […]

The first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares (aka, Taurus II) rocket is shipped out from Yuzhnoye design bureau in Ukraine. (Credt: Yuzhnoye)

The International Monetary Fund estimates the Ukrainian space industry lost up to 80 percent of its revenues following the Russian invasion of the eastern part of the country.

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Cyclone 4 first and second stages. (Credit: Alcantara Space)

It looks like the rumors I reported last month are true. Brazil has decided to pull out of its joint program with Ukraine to launch satellites aboard Cyclone-4 boosters from the Alcantara Launch Center.

“It is an accumulation of issues,” said Petronio Noronha de Souza, AEB’s director of space policy and strategic investments. “There have been challenges on the budget issues, on the technological aspects, in the relationship between Brazil and Ukraine and in the actual market for export that would be available. So it is a combination of things.”

In an April 14 interview at the Latin America Aero and Defense, or LAAD, show here, Noronha de Souza said a formal government announcement, likely from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the program’s stoppage was imminent.

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Cyclone 4 first and second stages. (Credit: Alcantara Space)

A report out of Brazil says President Dilma Rousseff is preparing to end the long trouble and repeatedly delayed Cyclone-4 program with Ukraine.

The story, written by Roberto Lopes, the opinion editor of the Journal of Defence Forces, quotes a sourcein the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Russia’s efforts to find a new home for its failure-prone Sea Launch company has taken officials to rising South American power — and charter BRICS member — Brazil.

That’s the word from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin anyway.

“A quite remarkable dialogue at the level of experts is currently in progress; possibly, the idea may take shape within the BRICS group, or in our bilateral relations with Brazil, of carrying out such joint launches and furnishing assistance to Brazil in developing its space industry and making its own spacecraft,” he said, adding that Brazil already had its own space site close to the ocean that would fit in well with such tasks.
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Cyclone 4 first and second stages. (Credit: Alcantara Space)

BUDAPEST, Hungary June 4 2014 (SpaceMETA PR) — SpaceMETA (www.spacemeta.com) and Alcantara Cyclone Space (www.alcantaracyclonespace.com) are proud to announce the signature of a MOU – Memorandum of Understanding (MOU No 2014-1-1 SM-ACS) for the launch of the SPACEMETA-LUMEM – Lunar Micro Explore Mission as part of the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

SpaceMETA, an official team competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE (www.googlelunarxprize.org), a race to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, has just concluded the final phase of the signatures of the MOU with the binational company Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) for the launch of SpaceMETA mission. According to the MOU, ACS delivers the SpaceMETA payload, called “SOLITAIRE”, into the basic orbit for subsequent translunar orbit injection using the payload’s own propulsion. The spacecraft, which has been designed in Brazil, will have the capability to detect water-ice thought to be present in regions under the lunar surface.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin looks over plans for Vostochny. (Credit: Roscosmos)

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Russian Federation was left with some key installations and capabilities in newly-independent nations. Kazakhstan had authority over the main launch facility at Baikonur, while Ukraine found itself in control of ballistic missile producer Yuzhmash, the Yuzhnoye bureau that designs Yuzhmash’s rockets, and a host of other defense companies.

Today, more than 50 Ukrainian arms factories turn out technologies that are vital for the nation’s tottering economy and the Russian military that now threatens to invade it. The factories are located in the southern and eastern portions of Ukraine, where Moscow-based separatists have wrestled control away from local authorities.

With the fate of these regions and companies still very much up for grabs, the outcome is of concern far beyond eastern Ukraine. Launch providers in the United States, Europe and Brazil are looking on with great concern and trepidation.

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BRUSSELS, Belgium — On January 27th, 2014, Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) and Von Karman Institute (VKI) signed a launch service contract for the QB50 Project co-funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program. The contract was signed by Oleksandr Serdyuk, Ukrainian ACS General Director, and Jean Muylaert, VKI Director. QB50 will place into Low Earth Orbit a combination of 50 double and triple CubeSats for atmospheric science and […]

The construction of the Cyclone-4 assembly and test facility. (Credit: HCA)

Aviation Week reports the decade-long effort to launch Ukraine’s Cyclone-4 rocket from Brazil’s Alcantara Launch Center is going to take a little longer.

The inaugural flight has now slipped into late 2015 at the earliest, adding to what has already been years of delay. Meanwhile, costs of building the launch complex have nearly doubled and are approaching $1 billion.

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