The Deep Space Communication Center (TsDKS, based in Yevpatoria, Crimea), which was formerly integrated into Ukraine's National Center for the Testing and Employment of Space Means, is being guarded by armed men, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
“Experts from Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos visited this facility a few days ago to assess its capabilities and prospects of its further use. Proposals were made on the center’s modernization,” the source said.
“It is being decided whether the TsDKS will be working under Roscosmos’s control, or its personnel will be military,” he also said.
The TsDKS, also known as Land Measuring Point 16, has a long history. During the Soviet era it was one of the Soviet Defense Ministry’s facilities, used as a flight control center for interplanetary automatic stations, and was also used under the human flights program. It provided support for 54 deep space missions, including Venera (Venus), Mars, Zond, Vega, Astron, Phobos and others.
A reserve center for controlling the land-based and orbital groupings of the Soviet Defense Ministry’s Space Forces went online in 1982.
The TsDKS includes the unique Kvant-D system for controlling deep space missions with the P-2500 antenna, which has a 70-meter diameter mirror.
After the Soviet Union’s breakup, a Ukrainian national center for testing and employing space means was set up on the basis of the TsDKS. But in fact it was not used, since Ukraine did not need it. Roscosmos wanted to make use of the center during the Phobos-Ground mission. But the attempt was a failure.
