Interfax-Ukraine reports that workers at the A.M. Makarov Southern Machine-Building Plant (PA Yuzhmash) in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine held a rally to protest the lack of pay and work. The workers build Zenit and Cyclone-4 boosters as well as the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares launch vehicle and the fourth stage for Europe’s Vega rocket. They are also involved in Dnepr, a decommissioned ballistic missile that has been converted into […]

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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