MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Russia will launch telecommunications satellites Express-80 and Express-103 into orbit on March 30 next year on Proton-M launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome, a space industry source told Sputnik.
In October, Yuri Prokhorov, the director general of Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), said that the launch of the two Express satellites, initially planned for late 2019, had been postponed to early 2020. In September, another source told Sputnik that the launch had been postponed to the spring of 2020.
"The delivery of satellites to the Baikonur Cosmodrome is planned for the second half of February, the launch [is planned] for March 30," the source said.
Roscosmos did not comment on this information to Sputnik.
Express-80 and Express-103 satellites, which are manufactured by Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev on the order of RSCC, will be put into geostationary circular orbit at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers (22,236 miles) and placed at 80 degrees and 103 degrees East longitude, respectively. They are designed to provide communication and broadcasting services in the C- and Ku-bands in Russia and the CIS states.
Currently, RSCC's orbital constellation consists of 11 satellites. By 2026, it will have 18 satellites, including 14 in the geostationary orbit and 4 in the highly elliptical orbit. For this, taking into account the failure of the old satellites, it is planned to launch 11 new ones (Express-80, -103, -AMU3, -AMU7, -AMU4, -AMU5, -AMU6, -RV1, -RV2, -RV3, -RB4).
