Units of the DIU launched carrier rockets from Ukrainian territory into space twice during the full-scale war. Technical equipment recorded altitudes of over 100 and 204 kilometers.
This was reported by Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of parliament and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, when answering a question regarding Ukraine’s ability to shoot down Russian Oreshnik missiles.
Neat.
Carrier Rockets are a cool tech generally.
Fly the rocket up vv high with conventional aircraft and yeet it into space using a launch system stored on the carrier and only the fuel needed to get out of the l atmosphere from there.
The concept is cool and it seems like it should be a no brainer, but it hasn’t proven more effective in practice commercially. Three companies have tried and failed to make air-launched rockets for placing satellites in orbit for commerical use.
Military is another ballgame though. Money doesn’t mean much against a military objective.
I very much doubt they going for intercepting Oreshniks. They are going for launching their own communications and spy satellites. Hence DIU involvement. Getting a good constellation of starlink like satellites would be extremely helpful for deep strikes into Russia without Elon getting in the way. Ukraine also seems to have had issues with access to foreign space based intelligence for both reconnaissance and programming contour navigation on cruise missiles.
