What do you do with a huge, unfinished aircraft carrier that nobody wants? Most experts agree that these days the best idea is to sell it for scrap, but Vyachaslav Gusynin is more ambitious; he sees the rusting hulk as the nucleus of Ukraine's space program.


Few countries with Ukraine's economic difficulties would even consider getting into the space race, but Ukraine already has its own Space Agency and earlier this year announced plans to set up a commercial satellite launching service.


Various schemes were put forward, including firing rockets from transport planes, but the latest was revealed Friday by Gusynin, department head at the Ukrainian Space Agency, who told The Moscow Times he believed the carrier could be converted into a launch pad.


"Of course, the plan is still at very early stages. We are still working out the details," he said. "And it will cost a huge amount of money. But, generally speaking, this is something quite genuine."


Gusynov is not alone. Jury Rudenko, chief of the ship building design office in Nikolayev, the heart of Ukraine's shipbuilding industry, confirmed that the project existed, but refused to give details.


According to Alexander Veledeyev, chief spokesman at the Russian Naval headquarters in Moscow, the ship in question is the heavy aircraft carrier Varyg, whose construction started in the early 1980s, but was abandoned in 1992.


Sergei Gorbunov of the Russian Military Space Forces, asked Friday to comment on the space project, dismissed it as "unreal."


"It may be technically feasible, but the fact is that Ukraine doesn't have the necessary resources."