KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian and Brazilian officials on Thursday signed a broad cooperation agreement which they hope will lead to Ukrainian rockets being launched into space from the South American country.
Ukraine is keen to carve out a place in the commercial space market and is a partner in the pioneering Sea Launch project which fires rockets from a platform floating in the ocean.
"This is a new, important and huge project which has enormous potential for our countries,'' said Brazil's Minister for Science and Technology, Ronaldo Sardenberg, after signing the cooperation deal with the head of Ukraine's national space agency, Olexander Nehoda.
"We already have many financing proposals from banks and firms and we have many potential clients,'' the minister said, giving no figures.
The agreement, which must be ratified by the parliaments of both nations, aims at launches of Ukraine's Tsyklon-4 rockets from Brazil's equatorial cosmodrome in 2001.
The officials said there was still work to do to prepare both the rocket and the launch pad.
Talks were continuing with Italy's Fiat Avio (FIA.MI) and were planned with some U.S. firms to form a joint venture to increase the Tsyklon's fuel and four-ton payload capacity, create a new control system and give it a modernized engine.
Brazil was preparing a new port and railroad link to get the rocket to the launch site, which itself still needed special launch equipment for the Tsyklon -- a liquid fuel, three-stage rocket based on the Soviet SS-9 two-stage ballistic missile.
The officials said 12 launches a year were planned over the 10-year span of the agreement.
Ukraine's ambitions to take a leading role in the international commercial satellite launch business suffered a setback last year when one of its Zenit rockets crashed with 12 multi-million-dollar satellites aboard shortly after blast-off from a launch pad in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan.
But three more rockets were later launched successfully -- one from Kazakhstan and two from a site in the Pacific.
Ukrainian space authorities say a launch from the equator, where the Earth's rotational speed is highest, will allow heavier loads to be blasted into space.
"This is a unique rocket which is extremely attractive for any client,'' the Brazilian minister said.
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