State Space Agency of Ukraine
The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU; Ukrainian: Державне космічне агентство України, Derzhavne kosmichne ahentstvo Ukrayiny, ДКАУ, DKAU) is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs. Along with the Ukrainian Defense Industry and the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex, it is a major state complex of the national defense industry of Ukraine.The agency was formed in 1992 based on the Soviet space program infrastructure remaining in Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
| Державне космічне агентство України | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SSAU |
| Formed | February 1992 (as National Space Agency of Ukraine) |
| Type | Space agency |
| Headquarters | Kyiv |
| Administrator | Volodymyr Taftay |
| Primary spaceport | None (owned)
|
| Annual budget | $80.4 million (2019) |
| Website | www.nkau.gov.ua |
The State Space Agency of Ukraine does not specialize in crewed astronautical programs. It is the second of two direct Soviet space program descendants. The Ukrainian city of Dnipro, also known as the Rocket City, during Soviet period was one of the Soviet space rocket manufacturing centers, while the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv provided various other technological support. Those remnants of the Soviet space program in Ukraine were reorganized into their own space agency. The agency does not have its own spaceport and until 2014, depended on the resources of the Russian Federal Space Agency (the primary inheritor of the Soviet space program).
Before December 9, 2010, the agency was known as Національне космічне агентство України, НКАУ, the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU)
Before 2014, launches were conducted at Kazakhstan's Baikonur and Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodromes. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, launches were conducted on Sea Launch's floating platform, which was soon mothballed. SSAU has ground control and tracking facilities in Kyiv and a control center in Dunaivtsi (Khmelnytskyi Oblast). Other facilities in Yevpatoria, Crimea had to be abandoned due to the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea. Following the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War, the agency is transitioning its cooperation efforts away from Russia with participation in alternative space programs.
Ukrainian spacecraft include a few kinds for domestic and foreign use and international cooperation. Ukraine has supplied Russia with military satellites and their launch vehicles, a unique relationship in the world.