"Proton" to place two Russian communication satellites in orbit

The Proton-K booster rocket which took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 09.22 Moscow time is to place two Russian communication satellites Yamal-200 in geostationary orbits. The GazKom company of Russia is the contractor of the launch.

"The module principle is used in all the space vehicles of the Yamal series - the 100th, the 200th and the 300th", a representative of RKK Energia told RIA Novosti.

According to him, "the space vehicles developed at our enterprise consist of the Yamal single basic platform and payload - on-board relay stations", he specified.

The service zone of the Yamal telecommunication network is formed as follows: each satellite creates two contour beams - the "northern" and the "zonal" - in the so-called C-range. The first of them works for Russia's territory, while the second selectively embraces the whole territory of Earth.

"Due to the use of new contour aerials the net capacity of radio communication lines is redistributed more optimally than with the use of the traditional aerials", the specialist specified.

The ground-based stations of the Yamal network make it possible to receive information at a speed of up to 2,048 megabit a second through trunk channels.