Ukrainian cosmonaut chosen for private venture into space (10/19/03)

Ukrainian cosmonaut chosen for private venture into space

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The novelty of space travel seems to be a thing of the past; the public does not show as much interest in the field as it used to. One private company, Canadian Arrow, wants to change that through competition for the X PRIZE. Headquartered in London, Ontario, Canadian Arrow is the first private firm to send a rocket to space. On June 26 Canadian Arrow announced its participation in this program and introduced the six people who have been selected to train as astronauts for Canadian Arrow.

Two X PRIZE flights will be made with two astronauts on each flight. The two astronauts who are not used on these flights will serve as back-ups.

The X PRIZE was initiated in St. Louis on May 18, 1996, to spur people's enthusiasm for space travel. Since then, 20 teams from seven different countries have registered for the X PRIZE competition. The purpose of the X PRIZE is to find an economically efficient way for the public to adventure into space. Modeled after the prizes that were given for aviation plans between 1905 and 1935, the X PRIZE aims to find licensed, low-cost, reliable vehicles for space adventurers.

As stated on the X PRIZE website (www.xprize.org) the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a spaceship that can carry three people and travel 62.5 miles, returns safely to Earth, and repeats the launch with the same ship within two weeks wins the $10 million X PRIZE.

Hundreds of people applied to take part in the X PRIZE mission, but only six were chosen, one of whom is Dr. Yaroslav Pustovyi. Dr. Pustovyi, a Ukrainian, was born in Kostroma, Russia, but now lives in Kyiv. In 1993 Dr. Pustovyi graduated from Mozhaiskyi Space Engineering Military Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, with a master of science degree in radio electronics engineering with honors. He then received a doctorate in physics and mathematics (radio physics) in 1996 from Kharkiv State University in Ukraine.

Since then Dr. Pustovyi has worked as an astronaut for the National Space Agency of Ukraine, where he is responsible for strategic planning and analytic studies. Dr. Pustovyi also passed a yea-long training program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to the Canadian Arrow website (www.canadianarrow.com).

From December 1996 to January 1998 Dr. Pustovyi served as a backup payload specialist for STS-87 crew, which flew the Space Shuttle Columbia mission in November and December of 1997. His colleague Col. Leonid Kadenyuk flew on that mission, becoming the first Ukrainian cosmonaut to fly on a U.S. spacecraft and the first Ukrainian to fly into space since Ukraine declared its independence.

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