This year's developments in North Africa have frustrated the plans for cooperation between Ukraine and Egypt in the space sector, the adviser to the chief of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, Eduard Kuznetsov, told reporters on Thursday.
Several years ago Ukraine developed and launched the first Egyptian earth remote sensing satellite EgyptSat-1, Kuznetsov said. He added that the parties also agreed to build a second similar satellite, EgyptSat-2, in Ukraine.
"In connection with the events [in Egypt] at the beginning of this year, these plans were disrupted. It is unlikely that anything will come of them in the near future," he said.
According to him, at present countries in Africa, Latin America and the CIS are showing interest in Ukrainian remote sensing satellites. He named Algeria, Nigeria, and Azerbaijan as being among them.
As reported, in 2001 the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenne Design Bureau won an international tender held by the Egyptian government for the development of the first Egyptian earth remote sensing satellite, EgyptSat-1.
This satellite was jointly built by Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences together with the Pivdenne Design Bureau in Ukraine, and was launched by Dnepr rocket on April 17, 2007
