You're reading: Ukraine’s Space Agency: First launch of Cyclone-4 rocket planned for end of 2014

The first launch of the Cyclone-4 rocket from the Alcantara Space Center (Brazil) is scheduled for the end of 2014, Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Yuriy Alekseyev has said.

“At the moment, the launch is scheduled to take place in November or December of 2014,” Alekseyev said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

According to him, works on the construction of the launch complex at Alcantara, Brazil, are currently in progress. The complex is 52% ready.

Equipment is being currently supplied, the works for filling the rocket and preparing it for the launch will start soon, Alekseyev said.

Ukraine and Brazil signed an agreement in 2003 on long-term cooperation in constructing the Cyclone-4 space rocket complex at Brazil’s Alcantara Space Center. The construction of the launch center was started in autumn 2010. The area of the complex will be around 50 hectares.

The project costs are estimated at $488 million, with the two countries sharing the expenses fifty-fifty.

In August 2012, the board of directors of Alcantara Cyclone Space raised the issue of increasing the funding for the project to $940 million.

The state budget for 2013 of Ukraine doesn’t have a specific clause about the funding of the Cyclone-4 project. However, some UAH 684.71 million is to be allocated from the budget’s general fund for the fulfillment of debt commitments on loans raised under government guarantees to implement the Cyclone 4 project, as well as a project on the creation of a national satellite communications system.

Ukraine plans to raise a loan of around $320 million (UAH 2.72 billion) under state guarantees in 2013 for the implementation of a joint project with Brazil to build the Cyclone-4 space rocket complex at the Alcantara Launch Center in Brazil. This is stipulated in the State Economic Stimulation Program for 2013-2014, which was enacted by cabinet resolution No. 187 dated February 27, 2013.