Saturday, June 4 2005 10:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine): President A P J Abdul Kalam was on his home turf as the first citizen of the country, also known as 'India's missile man', visited the Yuzhnoye, an establishment in Ukraine engaged in manufacture of space rockets.

A day before ending his 14-day sojourn to four countries, the President arrived in this town, 500 kms from Kyiv, in a special IL-62 aircraft where he was received by the Governor and Mayor of the city.

The President, who was accorded a traditional welcome, drove straight to Research production enterprise Yuzhnoye, where he attended a briefing by scientists.

The delegation of Kalam consisted of senior scientists including Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair.

The President received a briefing from the scientists in Dnipropetrovsk about their new projects.

Yuzhnoye was established in 1954 and shot into prominence after the development of a missile based on radically new technologies of hypergolic propellant components and use of self-contained guidance and control system.

After the break-up of erstwhile USSR and declaring the denuclearised status of the country, the establishment was assigned a new programme of the missile weapons development, which includes anti-aircraft missile Defence system, air-borne, sea-borne, sea-based and surface-deployed missile systems.

The establishment is also engaged in development of various liquid-propellants for space rockets and has the distinction of being a pioneering company in aerospace industry to set up a mechanism to facilitate a solution of important problems while carrying out the flight tests of strategic missile and launch vehicle.

The company, where 50,000 scientists and experts were employed, is presently working on Okean-O oceanographic satellite, Koronas-F solar observation satellite, Zenit 3SL three-stage launcher for sea launch project and Dnepr launch vehicle.