Washington, May 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The first Ukrainian telecommunications satellite, the Lybid, is scheduled for launch in the middle of 2013, according to reports in the U.S. mass media referring to the president of Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), Daniel Friedmann.
The production of the spacecraft was suspended as the Ukrainian authorities sorted out the satellite’s orbital slot and broadcast-frequency registration with international regulators, Friedmann said.
Those regulatory discussions slowed MDA’s work and put the contract about four months behind its original schedule, Friedmann said. But Ukraine recently resolved these issues and work has restarted, he added.
In early June 2010, Information Satellite Systems (ISS-Reshetnev) General Designer and General Director Nikolai Testoyedov told Interfax-AVN that ISS-Reshetnev and Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) would build the first Ukrainian telecommunications satellite, the Lybid, which was to be launched in 2012.
"A contract was signed with the MDA on May 22 on the joint construction of the Lybid satellite for Ukraine. ISS-Reshetnev will make the satellite’s Express-1000N platform, and will be in charge of the satellite’s general integration, including adjustment and commissioning," Testoyedov said.
