To say we struggled would be an underestimation. We truly fought for space in Ukraine. The private space. The battle that has already shown how a small step in legislation can be a big step in innovation.
Probably all of us were once proud of our space heritage. We, the dinosaurs, who still remember the glorious days of rocket industry, the beginning of the internet, the first Nokia brick phones, NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) network and life without 2 and 3 Gs. The rockets, the launches, the huge factories and secret cities. But after the end of the Soviet Union, the space industry also crashed.
“What space?” I was asked in disbelief when I went on about the space industry in Dnipro.
“Space is dead.”
Like in Pulp Fiction. “Zed’s dead, babe.” Just without babe. But it’s dead.
But it wasn’t all as simple as that. The new times have brought new competition from private space companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, the new intruders and disrupters. The young and self-confident new generation that sees space not as something almost holy, mysterious and “force of the nation” but simply as logistics. As simple as that. Logistics, cargo and passengers. Kilometers and kilograms. Just not horizontally but vertically.
This was also rational behind Zaporizhye-born Max Polyakov. If we have earth observation software eOs, we need pictures from satellite. To have constantly updated pictures, we actually need many satellites. To have the satellites in the orbit, we need to take them up. To take them up, we need rockets. Ok, guys, let’s build a rocket. And the more the better, as we can as well show some Ukrainian-engineering competition to private space companies. And this was the beginning of the story of the rejuvenation of Firefly, the team of Tesla-background engineers and CEOs that almost went bankrupt and were purchased by Noosphere Ventures.
This is just a very simple story behind the dedication of one investor that believed in private space and believed in having the engineering center and top crew in Dnipro, the eastern industrial city of 1 million people located 480 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. Heritage matters and know-how matters. Where else to base the new space history than in the traditional capital of space with 1,000 information technology graduates annually and over 15,000 engineers?
And this simple story was just the beginning of the long battle for the private space. Even though Firefly received the right to launch its rockets from one of the U.S government-owned launch pads and it was chosen to compete in the NASA space program, private space was still prohibited in Ukraine.
You could have the biggest in the world 3D printer in Dnipro and maybe even printed parts of rockets but you couldn’t sell them. The space industry was considered as the defense industry and licensed only to the government or only if ordered by the government.
Until this year when the new Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, adopted the “law of private space” allowing the private companies to make software and hardware solutions for space. Actually, as long as it is not for defense purposes, to do anything related to space, even launch a rocket or build a cosmodrome. Not that it makes sense for several geographic reasons, but in principle, you could.
And as the first sign of changing times just a few days after the law was adopted, so far considered as “underdog,” Firefly placed an order to government construction bureau Pivdenmash for $15 million, saving tens, if not hundreds of working places in Dnipro.
The private space company that was months ago just an engineering center stepped up to now officially cooperate with government, complementing the factories and know-how with an innovative approach and new sales. Sales are logistics, not defense solutions anymore. And just as the follow-up before Christmas, Firefly signed an agreement with government giant Yuzhmash for cooperation.
And this is just the very beginning, I think, and I am ready to bet that if we are dreaming of reading the headlines in foreign newspapers about “innovation and Ukraine,” it will be about space. Not only about space, as well about the first product-based unicorns but as well as space.
Old heritage and still existing know-how will be supported and re-boosted by young and self-confident rebels and disruptors also in Ukraine. And Dnipro will once again become the valley of space, creating thousands of new work spaces and boosting cool innovation. And allow me to say, “I told you so.”
