Subject: Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-04-18 From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" CONTENTS [01] Greek microsatellites UPSat and DUTHSat to be launched into space [02] There will be no measures for 2017 and 2018, Alternate Defence Min Vitsas says --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [01] Greek microsatellites UPSat and DUTHSat to be launched into space Two microsatellites, UPSat and DUTHSat, constructed in Greece will be launched into space on Tuesday, at 18:11 Athens time - along with 26 other similar microsatellites - from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The microsatellites will be transferred onto a rocket-carrier «Atlas V», destined for the International Space Station (ISS). UPSat is the first microsatellite based on open-source software fully constructed in Greece, the product of the University of Patras and the Libre Space Foundation under the QB50 programme. The QB50 is part of the European Research Project FP7 Space, coordinated by the Von Karman Institute. The other satellite DUTHSat was constructed at the University of Thrace. You can watch the satellite's launch via NASA's YouTube channel www.youtube.com/nasatelevision (live coverage will start at 17.00 Athens time). [02] There will be no measures for 2017 and 2018, Alternate Defence Min Vitsas says There will be no measures for 2017 and 2018, Alternate Defence Minister Dimitris Vitsas on Tuesday said in an interview with Skai TV. The measures and the offset measures will be voted in Parliament after the medium-term measures on the debt relief have been agreed, he said. Voutsis outlined the next steps: the technical staff will agree on the technical issues of the programme review, which is not a difficult task as most of the difficulties have been overcome since last November, the medium-term measures on the debt will be determined, Greece will participate in the ECB's quantitative easing programme, the tranche of July 2017 will be disbursed and the foundations for growth will be laid. Voutsis also confirmed that that there is a framework for a political agreement on the programme review. Asked on reports that the World Bank will not finance a 3 billion euro programme on combating unemployment, he said that the government is seeking ways to reduce unemployment.