Ekspress-MD1 (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ), was a Russian

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

operated by

Russian Satellite Communications Company Federal State Unitary Enterprise State Transport Company Rossiya, Federal State Unitary Enterprise Communications satellite, Satellite Communications () or Russian Satellite Communications Company is the main state operator of communications s ...

(RSCC) and designed and manufactured by

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (''Государственный космический научно-производственный центр (ГКНПЦ) имени М. В. Хру́ничева'' in Russian) is ...

on the Yakhta

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

for RSCC's Ekspress series. It massed at launch, had a power production capacity of 1300

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s with a C-band and

L-band The L band is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designation for the range of Frequency, frequencies in the radio spectrum from 1 to 2 gigahertz (GHz). This is at the top end of the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, at t ...

payload. It was successfully launched along

Ekspress-AM4 Ekspress-AM4 was a Russian communications satellite placed into the wrong orbit from a faulty Briz-M rocket stage. This satellite was to be part of the Ekspress series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Commu ...

aboard a

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an Expendable launch system, expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet Union, Soviet-developed Proton (rocket family), Proton. It is built by Khrunichev State R ...

Briz-M The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M ( meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket orbit insertion upper stages manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used on the Proton-M and Angara A5. T ...

from

Baikonur Baikonur ( ; ) is a city in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered by the Russian Federation as an enclave until 2050. It was constructed to serve the Baikonur Cosmodrome with adminis ...

on 11 February 2009. It was commissioned in the 80° East orbital position. The satellite failed on 4 July 2013, well short of its design life, for which RSCC collected the insurance.

Satellite description

Ekspress-MD1 was a geostationary communications satellite developed by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center on the Yakhta satellite bus. It is a small, three axis stabilized, satellite bus designed for direct geostationary orbit and as such it lacked an apogee kick motor. It was designed to support a bigger, heavier satellite on top of it and serve as its rocket adapter. For its companion, Ekspress-AM4, it was specially reinforced to carry the on top. The satellite weighted at launch, had a power production capacity of 1300 watts with a design life of 10 years. Its payload was made by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

and was composed of 8 × 40

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

C-band and 1 × 1 MHz L-band

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

, for a total satellite bandwidth of 321 MHz for mass of . It was designed to provide mobile presidential and governmental communications, digital TV and Radio broadcasting services, Internet access, data transfer, video conferencing in Russia and

CIS countries The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 246,200,194. ...

from the 80° East orbital position. Ekspress-MD1 was heavily based on the KazSat-1. While smaller than the other satellites of the Ekspress constellation, it enabled RSCC to have a second local supplier after its traditional contractor ISS Reshetnev. The structure was designed around a cylindrical structure that enabled stacking of another satellite on top of the Ekspress-MD1 and acted as an adaptor to the Briz-M stage for both spacecraft. While successfully commissioned, it failed to reach even half of its design life. It had a twin satellite,

Ekspress-MD2 Ekspress-MD2 was a Russian communications satellite which was lost due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. Equipped with eight C-band transponders and 1 L-band transponder, it was intended to be located in geostationary orbit at a longitude ...

which failed to reach orbit. As of 2016, RSCC has not ordered any further satellite from Khrunichev, relying instead on foreign suppliers like

Airbus Defence and Space Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus SE. Formed in 2014 in the restructuring of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), Airbus SE comprises the former Airbus Military, Astrium, and divisions. Contributing 21% of Airbus reven ...

History

Within the Russian Federal Space Program for 2006–2015,

(RSCC) awarded on 2006 a contract for two satellites, Ekspress-MD1 and Ekspress-MD2 to

. It also signed a separate contract with

Alcatel Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based systems, including ...

for the supply of the payloads. The twin spacecraft would be based on the Yakhta satellite bus and the lessons from the KazSat-1 satellite. In April 2007, RSCC Acting Director General Yuri Izmailov stated that Ekspress-MD1 and Ekspress-AM4 were the company to priority and would launch by December 2007. In an 29 April 2008 interview, Mr Izmailov stated that the Ekspress-MD1 was expected to fly in 2008. On 10 September 2008, Khrunichev stated that the satellite production was in full swing. The solutions from the lessons learned from the anomalies of KazSat-1 and Monitor-E had been implemented. And the satellite had gone through electrical testing and was going into acceptance testing. On 26 January 2009, the assembly of the integration of the spacecraft with Ekspress-AM4 and the

stage was started at the

launch site. On 6 February 2009, the

/Briz-M stack was certified for roll out to the Site 200/39 launch pad. On 11 February 2009, at 00:03:00

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, the rocket successfully launched both spacecraft directly to

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

. On 12 May 2009, Ekspress-MD1 was successfully commissioned into service in the Ekspress constellation. On the same year, the satellite was used for the first distribution of the multiplex programs compulsory under the Federal Target Program ''Development of TV and Radio broadcasting in the Russian Federation for 2009–2015''. On 4 July 2013, Ekspress-MD1 failed on orbit. At just 4 years, 4 months, 23 days, it failed to achieve even half of its design life. In February 2014, RSCC was able to collect the 857 million

ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...

s insurance payment on the failed satellite.

References

External links

*
Khrunichev Ekspress-MD1 page
{{Orbital launches in 2009 Ekspress-MD1 Spacecraft launched in 2009 2009 in Russia Satellites using the Yakhta bus