Thales Alenia Space announces start of Yamal-400 programme

May 28, 2010

Thales Alenia Space announced the official start of the Yamal-400 program for Russian operator Gazprom Space Systems (GSS). The two satellites in this programme, Yamal-401 and Yamal-402, will provide both fixed communications and broadcast services.  

As prime contractor for the Yamal-402 satellite, Thales Alenia Space is in charge of design, production, testing and turnkey delivery of the satellite, along with its ground segment. Built on a Spacebus 4000 C3 platform, Yamal-402 will be fitted with 46 Ku-band transponders to cover five different zones: Russia, North, Europe, South (Africa) and mobile coverage. It will be positioned at 55 degrees East.  

To be positioned at 90 degrees East, Yamal-401 will be built and integrated under ISS-Reshetnev responsibility, in conjunction with Thales Alenia Space for the payload and some platform equipment and GSS, participating in the payload development and responsible for the onboard TT&C and ground control facilities. Based on the Express 2000 platform, Yamal-401 will be fitted with 36 Ku-band transponders for the North and Russia coverage zones, and with 17 C-band transponders for broader coverage of the North zone.

Both satellites will be launched by International Launch Services on a Proton rocket. 

“We are very proud of our selection by Gazprom Space Systems to carry out this major program,” said Reynald Seznec, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “We were able to win this contract thanks to our unrivaled experience in Russia and the partnership formed by Thales Alenia Space over about the last 10 years with JSC Gazprom and Gazprom Space Systems under the program of communications satellites of the Yamal family.”