Ukraine and the United States are engaged in a dialog on the expansion of bilateral cooperation in aerospace. The countries together are looking for new options of technological and industrial cooperation in the space sector, Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) Liubomyr Sabadosh has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The discussion of new opportunities for implementing the potential of cooperation would continue during his working visit to the United States this week. Sabadosh will participate in a meeting of the Ukrainian-U.S. working group for cooperation in aerospace

"The agenda of the first meeting covers a wide set of issues. First, this is deepening of cooperation of between Ukrainian aerospace enterprises and U.S. Orbital ATK and Boeing. This is the expansion of partnership under the Antares missile carrier project and cooperation under the Zenit missile carrier project, maybe in a new upgraded version," Sabadosh said.

He said that the United States showed its interest in the proposals of the Ukrainian side in the issue. The negotiations are underway. There is a potential investor.

"Earlier many parts for Zenit [missile carrier] were bought from Russia. Today there is an opportunity to rearrange cooperation, as chief designer of Zenit missile carrier is located in Ukraine," he said.

Sabadosh said that he would also discuss the creation of a liquid missile engine for a U.S. missile carrier that can be used for the first stage of the upgraded Zenit carrier.

"I am sure that we could give a high-quality product to the market in the set terms and at the beneficial price, which is really important," he said. He said that cooperation in the Antares missile carrier project was our first and easiest step in industrial cooperation with the United States.

He said that the potential of partnership in the sphere of technologies to combat so-called space waste.

"Today the issue is on the global agenda: bottom space is overloaded with space activities waste," he said.

"The problem is not only of the ecological, but also the economic character: putting spacecrafts to higher orbits brings more additional expenses on organization of the launch," Sabadosh said.

He expressed confidence that Ukraine could become a leader in this promising direction of partnership.