The launch of Ukraine's first telecom satellite Lybid has been delayed until the end of this year for technical reasons, a source in the rocket and space industry told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The Lybid mission has not been cancelled. We have postponed until the yearend the launch, which was earlier moved from spring to summer due to the Crimean events. This time the launch is delayed for technical reasons: the Russian manufacturer needs to upgrade the satellite,” the source noted.
“It has been decided to control the Lybid from Kyiv,” he added.
A satellite control station was under construction at the National Space Facilities Control and Test Center in Yevpatoria but Ukraine had to move the control station after Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation, he continued.
“We have demanded that Russia return our equipment left behind on the annexed territory,” he said.
The Ukrainian State Space Agency and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) signed the Lybid contract in December 2009. MDA is the general contractor. Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellites System built the satellite on the Express 1000HT platform.
A loan from Canada’s export credit agency, Export Development Canada (EDC), given in summer 2009 on the Ukrainian government guarantee finances the project. An agreement on the deployment of the Ukrainian satellite in orbit was signed in March 2012 between the Ukrainian State Service for Special Communication and Information and the French communication authorities.
The Ukrainian State Space Agency said Lybid would be inserted into a geostationary orbital slot at 48 degrees East to provide Ku-band coverage to Ukraine, West Africa and India and transmit up to 900 channels.
The satellite will be launched by a Ukrainian Zenit-3SLBF rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch was originally planned for late April 2014.
