Russian Satellite Communications Company has signed in 2006 a contract with Alcatel Alenia Space Italia and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre to provide telecommunication payloads for Ekspress-MD1 and Ekspress-MD2 satellites.
Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) signed a contract with Alcatel Alenia Space Italia to provide telecommunication payloads for the Ekspress MD-1 and Ekspress MD-2 satellites. The space bus, based on KazSat, was built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre.
Ekspress 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 payloads were produced by Alcatel Alenia Space Italia (now Thales Alenia) and transferred to Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre for integration with the space bus in the third quarter of 2007. Ekspress MD-1 was launched from Baikonur in 2009 jointly with the Ekspress-AM 44 satellite. Ekspress-MD 2 was stranded in an unusable orbit after launch due to an upper stage failure.
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