Russia began production of a fully domestic communications satellite

MOSCOW, Oct. 27. Russian companies have already begun production of the first fully domestic communications satellite, Alexei Volin, general director of the state-run Space Communications company, said Thursday.

“The first 100 percent Russian communications and broadcasting satellite is now in production,” Volin said at the Satcomrus-2022 conference.

That spacecraft will be Express-AMU4. The head company of this cooperation is the Krasnoyarsk Reshetnyov ISS. Initially it was supposed that the payload for the apparatus will be made by the French-Italian company Thales Alenia Space, but, as Volin said, it had to “not quite of its own free will” to abandon the project.

Now a new cooperation of Russian enterprises has already been established, it includes 13 companies, which will produce a total of over 300 parts and assemblies.
In total five satellites are in production now through Space Communications, said the General Director.

Nowadays orbital constellation of SE CS consists of 13 telecommunication satellites “Express”. The youngest of them in orbit, Express-AMU3 and -AMU7, launched in December 2021, started working for their intended purpose in May this year.

It was previously reported that Express-AMU4 will be launched in 2026, and that in 2027 and 2028 the spacecraft with the indexes “-AMU5” and “-AMU6” will be launched. Express-40 and Express-P1 are expected to be launched in 2028 and Express-36, Express-AMU8, Express-AT3, and -AT4 in 2029. Express-AMU5 and Express-R2 will be launched in 2030. “Express-R3” will be launched in 2032.

Also in 2025-2026, a system of four Express-RVs in highly elliptical orbit is expected to be deployed. They are supposed to become a part of Sphere multi-satellite orbital constellation.

The Satcomrus-2022 conference is dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the 55th anniversary of the Space Communications Russian operator and the entire Russian satellite communications and broadcasting industry. The country’s first television satellite distribution network was launched in 1967.