National Space Facilities Control and Test Center

National Space Facilities Control and Test Center
Національний центр управління та випробувань космічних засобів
Agency overview
Formed	August 12, 1996
Type	Space agency
Headquarters	Kyiv, Ukraine
Administrator	Volodymyr Prysiazhnyi
Website	spacecenter.gov.ua

The National Space Facilities Control and Test Center (Ukrainian: Національний центр управління та випробувань космічних засобів, НЦУВКЗ, romanized: NCUVKZ) is a Ukrainian state institution subordinate to the State Space Agency of Ukraine that manages space flight operations, deep space research using its own technical means, space monitoring, geophysical monitoring, and testing of space technology. After the annexation of Crimea, the center (at one time called the Yevpatoria Deep Space Communication Center) moved from Yevpatoria to Kyiv.^[1]

History[edit]

In 1960, the center's facilities were established in a coastal plain area of Crimea near the city of Yevpatoria. The technical basis of the center was the space radio complex Pluton, which was equipped with unique antennas that had no world analogues. For the first twenty years of the Soviet space era, interplanetary flight management was carried out exclusively from Yevpatoria.

On February 12, 1961, the Deep Space Communication Center began managing the flight of the world's first automatic interplanetary station Venera 1. In 1965, the launches of the Venera 2 and Venera 3 spacecraft took place. Subsequently, a series of space vehicles of the Luna, Venera, and Mars series were launched, during which flight dynamics and landing on the planets of the Solar System, studying the atmospheres of planets, and transmitting information were tested. Specialists of the Deep Space Communication Center constantly managed the work of spacecraft, receiving operational and scientific information.

The long-term experience in managing automatic interplanetary stations, operating deep space ground stations, achievements in the fields of electronics, informatics, radio engineering, mechanical engineering and other areas of science and production made it possible to create a research complex—the radio astronomical telescope RT-70. Since December 1978, the RT-70 of the Deep Space Communication Center in Yevpatoria has been a permanent participant in the implementation of deep space research programs.

On August 31, 1995, at 10:50 a.m., the launch of the Cyclone-3 launch vehicle took place, which placed the first Ukrainian national satellite Sich-1 into orbit, designed for the operational acquisition of information to address the tasks of Earth observation from space. The team of the Deep Space Communication Center, during the management of the Sich-1 spacecraft, carried out a number of scientific experiments that allowed many discoveries to be made and new technologies to be developed, providing information to the national economy that is used in the interests of the economy.

In 1996, according to the Decree of the President of Ukraine in Yevpatoria, the National Center for Control and Testing of Space Vehicles (NCUVKZ) was established on the basis of the Deep Space Communication Center. This center is designed to manage spacecraft within national and international space programs.

In 2014, as a result of the annexation of Crimea, all technical means of the Deep Space Communication Center in the village of Vitine (near the city of Yevpatoria) remained on the territory of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea. That same year, in order to restore operational control over the National Center and its branches, the leadership of the State Space Agency of Ukraine decided to relocate the NCUVKZ to the mainland of Ukraine, to the city of Kyiv. Currently, the purpose of the NCUVKZ is to comprehensively support the development of Ukraine's space industry, implement the measures of the National Target Scientific and Technical Space Program in cooperation with the State Space Agency of Ukraine in the interests of national security and defense, the economy of the state, and to meet the needs of the population of Ukraine.

The NCUVKZ comprises four branches: the Center for Receiving and Processing Special Information and Control of the Navigation Field, the Main Special Control Center, the Western Radio Engineering Observation Center, and the Dnipro branch of the NCUVKZ "Dniprocosmos," whose capabilities fully meet the tasks assigned to the center.

In the future, the resources of the NCUVKZ may be used to carry out tasks such as ensuring the provision of satellite communication and data relay services, coordinate-time and navigation support, monitoring and analyzing the space environment on request of government agencies; guaranteed and operational provision of information obtained from remote sensing satellites, and technical support for the creation of modern technologies for its special use, the creation of multifunctional technical means.

On December 20, 2023, at 05:00, a missile strike was carried out at the former location of the Deep Space Communication Center near Yevpatoria, resulting in damage to the occupiers' military equipment.^[2]^[3]

Mission[edit]

The NCUVKZ participates in the implementation of research and development in the field of creating rocket and space technology and special equipment in the interests of national security and defense, the development of the economy of Ukraine, as well as in the execution of separate scientific projects and studies aimed at improving the functioning of the NCUVKZ within the framework of state-targeted scientific and technical programs^[4]

Important events[edit]

In August 2018, information appeared about the modernization of the Western Radio Engineering Observation Center (formerly the Dnipro over-the-horizon radar, which was used in the missile defense system of the former USSR), which is under the jurisdiction of NCUVKZ.^[5]