Ukrainian and French partners signed a document on cooperation in the field of space technologies, namely, the creation of a consortium to launch a constellation of small Earth observation satellites for Ukraine.
Ukrainian and French partners signed a document on cooperation in the field of space technologies, namely, the creation of a consortium to launch a constellation of small Earth observation satellites for Ukraine.
The signing of the document took place within the framework of IT Arena between the New Energy of Ukraine alliance on the Ukrainian side and the Prométhée company on the French side.
According to the press service, the satellite constellation should provide:
Valery Borovyk, Chairman of the Board of the New Energy of Ukraine Alliance, explained in an exclusive comment to dev.ua that the ultimate goal of the project is to create a constellation of satellites with high resolution to assist the security sector of Ukraine, as well as, in the future, for use in the civilian sector — for example, in the agricultural and energy sectors, for demining and reconstruction projects in Ukraine, etc.
«We plan that this will be our own group of satellites that will belong to Ukraine, under Ukrainian control at the expense of our partners. We are currently considering several options,» said Valeriy Borovyk.
According to him, the meeting on the occasion of signing the agreement was attended by the representative of the French President for the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as a representative of the French state investment bank BPI France.
«This will be a combined funding from France and from our other partners. Perhaps we will talk to the European Defense Fund and the NATO Innovation Fund, as well as other governments about assistance in creating this constellation of satellites. Ukraine was a space power and now we must definitely return to being a space power again,» added the chairman of the board of the New Energy of Ukraine alliance.
Valeriy Borovyk explained that at the first stage the main factor is attracting financing, and currently a Cooperation Agreement has been signed with Prométhée.
«We have support for this project from the French Ministry of Defense, they are interested in such cooperation. The next step is to talk to financiers about what funds we can borrow for this. In parallel, technical parameters will be drawn up, because it is on them that how much finance we need will depend,» Borovyk stated.
He says that several meetings have also been held with the global giant Airbus regarding the project. Borovik assessed that the project is complex, but it is possible to implement it within several years.
Let us recall that the French company Prométhée (full name Prométhée Earth Intelligence) is a player in the Newspace market and is engaged in the development and operation of a constellation of nanosatellites for Earth observation.
As dev.ua wrote, the Cabinet of Ministers proposes to create the Space Forces by the end of 2025.
