MOSCOW, Russia, April 5, 2007 - Satnews Daily - Russia will soon orbit five of the 15 telecommunications satellites as part of a national effort to upgrade the country’s space based communications systems.
Express-AM33 will be launched this September with Express-AM44 and Express-MD1 to be orbited in December. Express-AM4 and Express-MD2, will be sent into space in 2008.
Russia will orbit 15 communications satellites before 2015 under a new Federal Space Program that intends to provide secure, mobile communications for the Russian president and government, assist in Russia’s transition from analog to digital TV and provide universal communications service for difficult to reach regions of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The program to renovate Russia’s satellite communications fleet provides for designing and launching into geostationary orbit five new-generation Express-AM satellites with improved technical characteristics. Seven other satellites were launched beginning 1999 as part of the effort to upgrade Russia’s communications satellite constellation.
One of these new satellites (Express AM11), however, was lost when it apparently collided with space junk, causing it to spiral out of orbit. The satellite, equipped with 30 transponders, was built jointly with France's Alcatel Alenia Space and Sodern, with some equipment made in Germany and Japan. The spacecraft was supposed to remain in orbit for at least 12 years.
In September 2004, Russia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), NPO Prikladnoy Mechanicky signed a contract for the design, manufacture and launch of Express-AM33 and Express-AM44.
Also that month, Alcatel signed a contract with RSCC to develop and deliver the payloads for Express AM33 and AM44. The two payloads, or the electronic equipment for a specific satellite mission, is being manufactured in Alcatel Space's Toulouse plant and will then be integrated into Express-AM platforms produced by NPO- PM in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
Express-AM33 and Express-AM44 have a flexible configurations that permit RSCC to use them at any orbital position. Both satellites have C- and Ku-band transponders, and L-band capacity to provide mobile communications for the Russian president. The spacecraft are designed to provide digital TV and radio broadcasting, telephony, data transmission channels, videoconferencing services and Internet access. The satellites will also serve VSAT networks across Russia, the CIS countries, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Express MD-1 and MD-2 will each be equipped with eight C-band and one L-band transponders, along with a repeater panel and an antenna farm, to provide broadcasting and communications services across Russia and the CIS countries, as well as mobile presidential and governmental communications.
The Ministry for Information Technologies and Communications said the development of Russian telecommunications infrastructure with satellite communications as an integral part intends to give Russians access to universal communications services and implement federal projects such as e-Russia.
Alcatel Space has extensive experience in the development of Russian spacecraft equipment. Three RSCC Express-A satellites (A1R, A2, A3) and the new Russian Express AM11 and AM22 communications satellites are equipped with payloads produced by Alcatel Space. In August 2006, Alcatel Space delivered the Express AM2 satellite payload and the AM3 payload has been shipped from Alcatel Space's facility in Cannes to NPO-PM's factory. Alcatel Space's collaboration with Russia started in the mid-1990s with the construction of the Sesat satellite for Eutelsat in cooperation with NPO-PM.
