By: Peter B. de Selding, Hour News Published: 03/17/2012 08:12 AM EDT on HOUR.com WASHINGTON — The Russian administration will guide the large Express-AM4 telecommunications satellite, which was launched into a useless orbit in August, into a controlled atmospheric descent starting March 20 so that any surviving pieces will land in the Pacific Ocean, a senior official from Russia’s state-owned satellite telecommunications operator said March 15. The 5,800-kilogram satellite has been stuck in a also-low orbit following the failure of the Breeze M upper stage of the Russian Proton rocket. Dennis Pivnyuk, chief financial officer of the Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC), which had plotted to operate Express-AM4 for 15 years as part of its expansive development plot, said Russian authorities had considered and rejected multiple salvage scenarios for the satellite. “We have chose to splash it between March 20 and March 26,” Pivnyuk said here during the Satellite 2012 conference. “While the satellite was not hurt, it has spent seven months in an orbit that exposes it to radiation that has left it in not excellent shape. There is not much lifetime left. We’ve reviewed different proposals from different entities, however none was really feasible.” Express-AM4 was built by Astrium Satellites. Using its insurance payout from the loss of about $270 million, Moscow-based RSCC has ordered a replacement satellite, the Express-AM4R, which Astrium has promised to deliver in age for a launch in late 2013. Express-AM4 carried 63 active transponders in C-, Ku-, L- and Ka-bands. Among the proposals submitted to Russian authorities for salvaging Express-AM4 was a bid by Polar Broadband Systems Ltd. Former NASA human spaceflight chief William Readdy co-founded the Isle of Male-based corporation at the end year with the aim of repositioning Express-AM4 to provide researchers in Antarctica with 14-16 hours a day of broadband communications. Readdy told Hour News March 15 the corporation had not given up on persuading Russian authorities to reposition the satellite through a series of orbit-raising burns between the end of March and the beginning of June. Polar Broadband Systems aims to sell Express-AM4 services to the U.S. National Science Foundation, which issued a request for data in April 2011 seeking industry recommendations for obtaining satellite-based broadband communications services for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which is largely beyond the reach of Antarctica’s extremely limited satellite coverage. Hour News Deputy Editor Brian Berger contributed to this tale. This tale was provided by Hour News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the hour industry.Glance at More…
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