OREANDA-NEWS. May 27, 2013. Ukraine is eager to develop cooperation with Russia in space, in particular in the direction of the Dnipro program, and to take part in creation of a super-heavy launch vehicle of the Zenit rocket carrier and construction of the Shidnyi (Eastern) cosmodrome.

This was announced in an interview with the 5-th Channel by Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Boyko on commenting a meeting of Ukrainian and Russian delegations under chairmanship of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Boyko and Deputy Prime Minister of Government of the Russian Fedeartion Dmytro Rogozin which took place last week in Moscow.

“The launched programs must be developed. Firstly, it concerns the Dnipro program – a joint launching of rockets. The second, it is a likely participation of Ukraine in production of a heavy rocket and also in the construction of a cosmodrome in the Far East,” Yuriy Boyko said.

He noted that the project of creating of the super-heavy launch vehicle on the basis of the Zenit rocket carrier was a large scale project and would contribute to significant development of the branch.

“This program is huge, it will involve several thousands of people in Ukraine and several enterprises. It will give a respective impetus to the development of the whole space industry,” Yuriy Boyko explained. 

On commenting the prospects of participation of Ukrainian enterprises in construction of the Shidnyi cosmodrome, in fact, from zero the Vice Prime Minister emphasized that Ukraine had such an experience already, as it participated in the construction of the cosmodrome in Brazil.
Touching upon a situation with the accident of the Zenit-3SL rocket carrier Yuriy Boyko assured that there had been held a detailed investigation and taken all necessary measures in prevention of such cases in the future.