Ekspress-MD 2

Spacecraft n°:

Russian spacecraft n°:

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) signed a contract with Alcatel Alenia Space Italia to provide telecommunication payloads for the Ekspress MD-1 and Ekspress MD-2 satellites. The space bus will be built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre.
• Ekspress MD-1 and MD-2 will each be equipped with eight C-band and one L-band transponders, along with a repeater panel and an antenna farm, to provide broadcasting and communications services across Russia and the CIS countries, as well as mobile presidential and governmental communications.

Mission details:

• A Proton launched from Baykonur on Aug 6, 2012 placed a Briz-M upper stage with two communications satellites in a suborbital path. The Briz-M burned to a 173 km initial orbit, and then restarted to reach a 200 x 5000 km intermediate orbit. However the third burn failed after only 7 seconds, leaving the vehicle in a 266 x 5015 km x 49.9 deg orbit instead of continuing towards geostationary altitude. The two payloads and the DTB drop tank separated from the Briz, so there are four objects being tracked in this orbit. They will probably reenter within one year.
• The satellite has been placed in a wrong orbit by a Proton-M Russian launcher. Ekspress-MD2 is a Khrunichev Yakhta-class satellite for Kosmicheskiya Svyaz, the Russian domestic communications satellite operator; mass was 1140 kg full.
• The upper stage from the failed Ekspress/Telkom launch, Briz-M No. 99532 (catalog 38746), disintegrated on Oct 16, 2012 presumably when residual fuel and oxidizer came into contact, and generated an as-yet-unknown quantity of orbital debris. The stage was in a 263 x 5012 km x 49.9 deg orbit. None of the debris has yet been cataloged.