Ukraine President Sets High Store By Ukraine-brazil Space Cooperation Agreements

The Ukrainian-Brazilian agreements on space cooperation, signed in Kiev on Wednesday, are mutually advantageous, said Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma at a press conference after the completion of the Ukrainian-Brazilian negotiations. Commenting on an intergovernmental agreement on the protection of technologies related to the launch of rockets from the Brazilian space center Alcantara and the memorandum on the use of Ukrainian carrier rockets, Leonid Kuchma noted that the Ukrainian side had long been negotiating with Brazil on this matter. The Ukrainian president, who has a record of work in the space sphere, reported that Ukrainian boosters Tsiklon-4 are now in great demand. The orders for them amount to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth, he said. In line with the concluded agreements, Ukraine and Brazil are going to establish a joint venture for servicing Ukrainian Tsiklon-4 boosters. It will include the Yuzhnoe design office and the Yuzhmash industrial association. All organisational and technical matters will be settled by 2004.