The Facility for Low-energy Antiproton and Ion Research (FLAIR) and a large part of the wide physics program decisively rely on new experimental techniques to cool and slow down antiprotons to 20 keV, in particular on the development of an ultra-low energy electrostatic storage ring (USR). The whole research program connected with anti-matter/matter interactions is only feasible if such a machine will be realized. For the USR to fulfil its key role in the FLAIR project, the development of novel and challenging methods and technologies is necessary: the combination of the electrostatic storage mode with a deceleration of the stored ions from 300 keV to 20 keV, electron cooling at all energies in both longitudinal and transverse phase-space, bunching of the stored beam to ultra-short pulses in the nanosecond regime and the development of an in-ring reaction microscope for antiproton-matter rearrangement experiments. In this contribution, the present status of the USR project is summarized and the new machine lattice is presented.