Ekspress-AM 4R

Spacecraft nº:

Russian spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  14F01 Launch date  15 May 2014 - 21:42 UT Launch site  Baikonur, LC-200/39 Launch vehicle  Proton-M / Briz-M Mission  Communication Decay  15 May 2014

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Express AM4 will use Astrium's Eurostar-3000 satellite design. The satellite will be delivered in orbit by Khrunichev Space Center using the Proton launch vehicle. It will be equipped with a 63 active transponders operating in L, C, Ku and Ka bands at a payload power of 14 kW for its planned 15-year service life in orbit. Its ten antennas will provide high performance coverage over the Russian Federation and the CIS countries and its steerable antennas can be used to provide communication to any point within the satellite's visibility.

Mission details:

• A Proton vehicle launched from Baykonur on May 15 had a third stage failure and reentered over China. Debris was found north of Harbin, in Heilongjiang province. The communications satellite payload, Ekspress AM-4R, had been built to replace a satellite lost in an earlier Proton failure; it used an Astrium Eurostar 3000 bus and was intended for the Russian domestic operator Kosmicheskaya Svyaz. The payload section reentered without separating from the third stage; orbit achieved was around -1600 x 160 km.