Background

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America and the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU) recognizing the September 29, 1999, Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the United States of America Concerning Cooperation in the Aerospace Sector, and recalling their successful bilateral cooperation on the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment aboard the STS-87 Space Shuttle Mission, signed the Agreement for collaboration in the areas of life sciences, microgravity sciences and telemedicine on October 19, 2000, .

Under this Agreement, NSAU proposed, and NASA and NSAU were mutually agreed upon, 41 specific ground-based research projects. Ukrainian participation in these projects was funded from the U.S. Department of State to the Science and Technology Center of Ukraine (STCU), and included funding for cooperation in life sciences, microgravity sciences and telemedicine to the amount of more then $2.5 million.

Taking into account the results of these specific projects, NASA and NSAU to estimate possible prospects of experiments, including ones aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Any such collaboration will be agreed upon the additional arrangements between NASA and NSAU.