OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2014. International Launch Services (ILS) and Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) announced today signing a contract for launching the Yamal 601 communication satellite on a Proton launch vehicle. The mission is scheduled for February 2016.
 
This high-power geostationary satellite weighing more than 5700 kilograms will be built by Thales Alenia Space France (TASF).  It should replace the existing Yamal 202 spacecraft to offer fixed communications and data transmission services in the C-band across Europe, the Middle East, in Northern Africa and South-East Asia from the orbital position at 49 degrees East. Another Yamal 601’s task will be to support further expansion of Ku/Ka-band services on the domestic market.  The expected service life of the spacecraft is 15 years.
 
ILS was incorporated in the United States in 1995. Today, the company is headquartered in Reston, VA. ILS has the exclusive rights for world-wide marketing of the Russian heavy-lift Proton launch vehicle. Since 1996, the company has performed a total of 84 commercial Proton missions that supported delivery into orbit of virtually all major types of commercial spacecrafts.  The list of ILS’s customers includes all leading global satellite operators. Just earlier this year ILS announced the launch of the Intelsat DLA-2 satellite (otherwise known as Intelsat 31) on a Proton in 2015 under a contract concluded by ILS and the Intelsat S.A. satellite operator of the U.S., in March 2013.  For more information, visit: http://www.ilslaunch.com/
 
Since May 2008, ILS’s majority stock has been owned by the Russian state-run Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the designer and manufacturer of the Proton and the Angara launch vehicles and the backbone of the Russian space industry.  Its main lines of business include the development, production and/or operation (subject to the Russian federal programs) of light- or heavy-lift launch vehicles, Earth observation or communications spacecrafts or space-borne systems, and modules for manned space stations.
Today, the Khrunichev Space Center incorporates the Space Rocket Plant, the Salyut Design Bureau, the Space-oriented Hardware Operations Plant, the Medical Equipment Plant and nine affiliations located in six constituent entities of the Russian Federation – namely, in Moscow, the Moscow Region, the Vladimir Region, the Omsk Region, the Voronezh Region, and the Arkhangelsk Region. For more information, visit: http://www.khrunichev.ru/
 
The Gazprom Space Systems Joint Stock Company, an affiliate of the Gazprom JSC, is engaged in building and operation of space-borne communication and/or Earth observation systems for the Gazprom Group as well as for other customers. The company has built and now operates the Yamal satellite communication and TV casting system consisting of a satellite constellation and a terrestrial segment. Today, the company is expanding the Yamal system and is building the SMOTR Earth observation system. For more information, visit: http://www.gazprom-spacesystems.ru//