Sich-2-30 (satellite)

2022

Ukrainian satellite launched for the first time in 11 years lost

Launched for the first time in 11 years, the Ukrainian satellite was lost. About this on his Facebook page on January 23, 2022 wrote a former freelance adviser to the head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Andriy Kolesnik.

There is no stable (or absolutely no) connection with the Sich-2-1 satellite (Sich-2-30), so it is not possible to provide information to the American side regarding the expanded parameters of its movement for full identification, he said.

Launched for the first time in 11 years, the Ukrainian satellite was lost

According to Kolesnik, the spacecraft launched on January 13, 2022, after 10 days, has not yet been identified, although according to the agreement between Kiev and Washington, signed in 2021, the United States was already supposed to put it in the database on a special website. Most likely, there were problems with communication with the satellite, he suggested.

As the pilot-cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin told the Ren TV channel, the device could not be lost in the sense that it did not even start working.

Everything did not get in touch, "the expert noted.

If the satellite did not get in touch, then it is impossible to work with it, Lazutkin specified. In his opinion, Ukraine cannot independently launch a satellite, because it does not have rocket carriers, means to launch a rocket and cosmodromes.

Sich-2-30 was intended for monitoring the use of land, vegetation, forest and water resources, as well as disaster management. At the same time, he was supposed to allow him to receive fairly high-quality data on the creation of engineering structures, the movement of military equipment and ships. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the launch of the satellite extremely important for the country. In January 2022, Ukrinform announced that Ukraine could build its own cosmodrome on the Black Sea coast.^[1][2]

Satellite launch

On January 13, 2022 from Cape Canaveral in Florida (USA) the carrier rocket Falcon 9 of the SpaceX company launched the Ukrainian satellite of optical-electronic observation of Earth "Sich-2-30" made by Yuzhnoye design office.

This is the first launch of a Ukrainian spacecraft in 11 years. Before Sich-2-30, the Sich-2 satellite was sent into orbit using the Dnipro-1 launch vehicle - this happened in August 2011.

Ukraine launched the first satellite in 10 years into space

According to the Ukrainian publication Страна.ua, the launch of Sich-2-30 by SpaceX cost the Ukrainian Goskosmos almost $2 million, the cost includes installing a satellite on a rocket, launching, and a system for separating the satellite from the rocket. The state budget approved by the Verkhovna Rada for 2022 provides for the allocation of almost 460 million UAH for the control and testing of space assets.

The Sich-2-30 satellite was developed within the framework of the National Space Program of Ukraine and is designed to obtain digital images of the Earth's surface in the visible and infrared ranges of electromagnetic wavelengths and transfer information of the obtained images to the ground information system of the space system.

The Sich-2-30 is essentially an improved version of the Sich-2, but this time our Yuzhnoye design bureau no longer used Russian elements. In Europe and South Korea, they bought a chemical battery for this, as well as communication systems and sensors. At the same time, elements of domestic production were widely used, which were more than foreign ones, the developers say.

2013: Satellite launch plans

Sich-2-30 was collected in Yuzhnoye Design Bureau to 85 percent readiness back in 2013. The launch was scheduled for 2015, after which it was postponed more than once. At first, the satellite was developed under the name "Sich-2-1," and then was renamed "Sich-2-30" in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the independence of Ukraine, in connection with plans to launch it in the anniversary year.^[3]

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