Even a deal with an American company does not save the space industry that Ukraine has inherited from the Soviet Union.
Der Tagesspiegel writes about it.
Last year the Ukrainian parliament decided to finance the space industry, which had been in decline for so long. The country’s space agency was headed by businessman Volodymyr Usov. He had big plans, but from the first days of his work he had grim realities waiting for him. Most space industry enterprises turned out to be insolvent, and 16 thousand workers were waiting to pay off their salary debts.
The situation may have been more encouraging, but after the coup d’état in Kiev, the country’s Russophobic policy led to the termination of cooperation with its only client, Russia. As a result, Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Now Yuzhmash hopes for contracts with the American company Firefly Aerospace, but only eight small rockets have been ordered from the US, while the Ukrainian enterprise needs up to $60 million of investment. However, there is another problem: Yuzhmash has a shortage of aluminium, which is so necessary for production. So far, it has been supplied from Russia.