Ukraine’s delayed first communications satellite Lybid could now be launched in August 2019, according to Pavel Detyarenko, head of the Space Agency of Ukraine (GKAU).
Quoted by Mediasat, he added that this nevertheless depends on whether the Canadian contractor MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) resumes work on the project before the end of the year.
On the other hand, a worst scenario would see the dispute between the two parties end up in the London Court of International Arbitration.
Were the GKAU to win the case and have its money returned, it would go on to build a new satellite.
GKAU and MDA signed an agreement signed an agreement in 2009, with the latter acting as the general contractor and agreeing to transfer the satellite to Ukrkosmos after its launch.
This was initially planned for 2012 but then subsequently put back for various, including financial, reasons.
Lybid has been built and is currently located in Krasnoyarsk and under the custody of the Russian company Information Satellite Systems (ISS) – Reshetnev.
Significantly, it was reported in the Ukrainian media last month that the GKAU has no plans to sell Lybid to an international operator in order to settle the dispute with MDA.
