Leonid Kuchma, long-time chief manager (1986–1992) of the company, became the Prime Minister in 1992, and later President of Ukraine in 1994.
[citation needed] In February 2015, following a year of strained relations, Russia announced that it would sever its "joint program with Ukraine to launch Dnepr rockets and [was] no longer interested in buying Ukrainian Zenit boosters, deepening problems for [Ukraine's] space program and its struggling Pivdenmash factory".
[3] On 14 August 2017, the Institute of International Strategic Studies issued a report presenting evidence that "North Korea has acquired a high-performance liquid-propellant engine from illicit networks in Russia and Ukraine", likely produced by Pivdenmash facilities.
[7] This was Antares' return-to-flight following the failed Cygnus Orb-3 mission nearly two years earlier, resulting from a faulty AJ-26 engine.
[13] On August 1, 2023, the final Antares 230+ lifted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia with Cygnus NG-19 to resupply the International Space Station.
Owing to engine unavailability and the inability of Pivdenmash to produce further first stages due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, future Cygnus spacecraft will initially be launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher before transitioning to the Antares 330.
On November 21, 2024, the infrastructure was struck by a Russian non-nuclear IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile).
Historic and Pivdenmash launch systems included: Created in 1944 as Dnipropetrovsk Tractor Factory, it was later expanded.