State Space Agency of Ukraine

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State Space Agency of Ukraine

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
Annual budget	$80.4 million (2019)[1]
Website	www.nkau.gov.ua

The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU; Ukrainian: Державне космічне агентство України (ДКАУ), romanized: Derzhavne kosmichne ahentstvo Ukrainy) is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs. It was formed on 29 February 1992, and was based on the Soviet space program infrastructure that remained in Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was called the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU; Національне космічне агентство України, НКАУ) until 9 December 2010.^[2]

The agency succeeded the Soviet space program along with the Russian Federal Space Agency, which inherited the biggest share. Dnipro, also known as Rocket City, was one of the Soviet space rocket manufacturing centers, while the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv provided technological support. Those remnants of the Soviet program in Ukraine were reorganized into their own space agency. The SSAU does not specialize in crewed astronautical programs.

Ukrainian spacecraft include a few types for domestic and foreign use and international cooperation. Ukraine has supplied Russia with military satellites and their launch vehicles, a relationship unique in the world. The agency does not have its own spaceport. It used the resources of the Russian Federal Space Agency until 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). Facilities in Yevpatoria, Crimea, had to be abandoned with the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea. Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, the agency has been transitioning its cooperation efforts away from Russia, with participation in other space programs.

Along with the Ukrainian Defense Industry conglomerate and the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex, the agency is a major state-owned component of the defense industry of Ukraine.^{[citation needed]}