MOSCOW, December 26 (RIA Novosti) – A Proton-M rocket carrying a high-power telecommunications satellite will lift off Thursday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to wrap up Russia’s space launch program for this year.
“The launch has been scheduled for 2:50 p.m. Moscow time [10:50 GMT]. The separation of the Express-AM5 satellite from the Briz-M booster is expected at 12:12 a.m. Moscow time on December 27,” said a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The Express-AM5 satellite, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev satellite-manufacturing company, will be put into a geostationary orbit at 140 degrees east to provide mobile presidential and governmental communications, digital television and radio broadcasting services, as well as multimedia and VSAT network services.
The satellite, weighing 3.4 metric tons, carries 30 C-band transponders, 40 Ku-band transponders, 12 Ka-band and 2 L-band transponders.
The spacecraft has been designed to operate for 15 years and will generate no less than 14 kilowatts of payload power, according to the Reshetnev company.
Canadian company MDA supplied the repeater and antenna subsystems for the Express-AM5.
