On Thursday, July 30th at 9:25 pm UTC, a Proton-M was launched from Site 200/39 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Its payload was two communication satellites: Ekspress-80 and Ekspress-103.

According to Roscosmos, the satellites, which are owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), “are designed to provide fixed and mobile services, digital TV and radio broadcasting, high-speed Internet access, as well as data transmission in Russia and the [Commonwealth of Independent States]”, which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The spacecraft themselves were built by Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev, a subsidiary of Roscosmos, based on the Ekspress-1000N bus while the communication payloads were built by Thales Alenia Space. They have a design life of 15 years.

Ekspress-80 will be positioned and operate at 80° East, while Ekspress-103 will be positioned at 103° East. When commissioned, Ekspress-103 will operate at 96.5° East, with 103° East as a backup position, likely to replace the Ekspress-AM 3 satellite.

The two satellites each have 16 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders that will provide coverage for Russia and Southeast Asia. Global coverage will be provided by 2 L-band transponders on Ekspress-80 and 1 L-band transponder on Ekspress-103.

More Information

Roscosmos news release 

Roscosmos news release (Russian)

ISS-Reshetnev press release (Russian)