by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) has issued its first operator licenses for space launch activities to a domestic software developer and an American engineering services company.
AEB awarded the licenses to Essado de Moraise Ltda. of Franca, Brazil, and Orion Applied Science & Technology LLC (https://orionast.com/) of Manassas, Va., the space agency said in a press release.
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ANTIGONISH, N.S. (StFX PR) — St. Francis Xavier University has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Maritime Launch Services Ltd.
The signing of the agreement took place January 17, 2020 at StFX in the Joyce Family Atrium, Mulroney Hall before a large crowd that included the Hon. Randy Delorey, Nova Scotia Minister of Health & Wellness and Gaelic Affairs and Antigonish MLA; Mary Preville, Director General of Policy for the Canadian Space Agency; as well as representatives from ACOA, Nova Scotia Business Inc., local municipal governments, the local chamber of commerce, and the aerospace industry.
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Cyclone 4 launch pad under construction. (Credit: Alcantara Space)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Brazil’s decades-long effort to launch satellites from its underused Alcântara Launch Center could finally be bearing fruit.
On Monday, Brazil and the United States signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement that will allow American companies to launch orbital rockets from Alcântara.
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The Brazilian government has been trying to entice foreign launch providers to use the equatorial Alcantara Launch Center. Reuters reports: Brazil’s defense minister said on Thursday that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and other U.S. aerospace companies have expressed interest in launching rockets from its Alcantara military base near the equator and visited the site in December. “They were very impressed,” Defense Minister Raul Jungmann told reporters. “They showed interest, but […]
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 […]
Cyclone 4 first and second stages. (Credit: Alcantara Space)
RESTON, Va. & DNIPRO, Ukraine — The Yuzhnoye Design Office in Dnipro, Ukraine has been authorized by the State Space Agency of Ukraine to proceed with a new international launch complex and operations in North America based on the existing Cyclone 4 rocket.
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.
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.
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.
The first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket is shipped out from Yuzhnoye design bureau in Ukraine. (Credt: Yuzhnoye)
I was just looking at the website for Yuzhmash, which is Ukraine’s principle producer of launch vehicles. I ran across the following letter to employees published on Oct. 10. It includes this rather prediction:
“Pivdenmash [Yuzhmash] is in deep financial crisis, the main factor which is a precipitous decline in production. The current crisis is not irreversible, but the situation is close to the point of no return.
“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.”
This was four months ago. And by all accounts, matters have only gotten worse. The fighting eastern Ukraine has intensified. The government’s finances haven’t improved. And employees were given two-month unpaid leaves in late January. That came after many months of 3-day work weeks and partial pay.
