FARNBOROUGH. July 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Applied Mechanics Scientific Industrial Association (NPO PM), based in Zheleznogorsk, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, plans to sign contracts on developing Europe-1 and Asia-1 satellites in the near future, the NPO PM office at the Farnborough 2006 air show told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"We expect to sign contracts on developing new Europe-1 and Asia-1 satellites, based on the Russian Express-1000 platform, next week. The European Alcatel Alenia Space will be the payload manufacturer for both projects," an official said.
On Tuesday head of the Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov and NPO PM acting Designer Genera/Director General Nikolai Testoedov met Acatel Alenia Space President Pascale Sourisse.
"The meeting discussed cooperation between the Federal Space Agency and Alcatel Alenia Space, pertaining to project involving NPO PM, for instance the Express-AM33 and the Experess-AM44 communications satellites development. The satellites are to be manufactured in 2007," he said.
NPO PM specializes in developing satellites. About two thirds of Russian spacecraft have been designed and manufactured by NPO PM. The association has designed and launched in excess of 1,100 satellites over 45 years of its operation. NPO PM also modernizes the GLONASS system and develops new-generation Glonass-M and Glonass-K navigation satellites.