MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The next-generation telecom satellite Express-AM5 put into orbit on Thursday begins its trial run. Its commercial operation will start in May 2014, the customer, Space Communications federal state unitary enterprise, said.
"The launch of the Express-AM5 satellite opens a new page in the development of the Russian orbital cluster. We will be busy commissioning this and another six satellites, connecting them to the network and implementing long-awaited satellite communication and digital broadcast projects inside and outside of Russia in 2014," a report obtained by Interfax-AVN on Thursday cited Space Communications General Director Yuri Prokhorov as saying.
"Express-AM5 will begin commercial operation in a geostationary orbit slot of 140 degrees East in May 2014 upon the completion of the test flight and the check of its systems," the report said, adding that the satellite would cover the Far East and Siberia.
The Expres-AM5 telecom satellite was launched from Baikonur on December 26.
The Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems built Express-AM5 jointly with Canada's MDA and the Radio Research and Development Institute (NIIR) for Space Communications. The satellite is mounted on the Express 2000 platform and equipped with 84 C, Ku, Ka and L transponders. Its service life is 15 years.
Express-AM5 was built consistent with the domestic telecom satellite market development forecasts and the federal target program "The Development of Television and Radio Broadcast Services in the Russian Federation in 2009-2015" within the framework of the Russian space program for the period until 2015. It will provide multi-channel digital television and radio broadcast, including high definition, to Eastern Russia.
It will also deal with presidential and governmental mobile communication, broadband Internet, multimedia services (digital television and radio broadcast, telephony, videoconference and data transfer) and VSAT communication lines in Siberia and the Far East.