The Ekspress (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ) is a highly flexible

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus-d ...

designed and manufactured by

ISS Reshetnev JSC Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev (russian: Информационные спутниковые системы имени академика М. Ф. Решетнёва, Informatsionnye sputnikovye systemy imeny akademika M. F. Reshetnyov ...

. It is an unpressurized bus originally designed for

GEO Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...

, but that has been adapted for

medium Earth orbit A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between above sea level.

and to

highly elliptical orbit A highly elliptical orbit (HEO) is an elliptic orbit with high eccentricity, usually referring to one around Earth. Examples of inclined HEO orbits include Molniya orbits, named after the Molniya Soviet communication satellites which used them ...

. It has different versions and has been used from civilian communications to

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

Platform variations

The Ekspress bus has two main platforms: the 1000 light to medium version and the 2000, for heavy satellites. There was a project for a third platform, the 4000, but it has not yet been used.

Ekspress-1000 Series

The Ekspress-1000 (

: ) in its different variations offers an platform for small to medium satellites. It is a direct to

bus for total spacecraft weights from to and having a power production from 3 kW to 8 kW with a life expectancy of 15 years. It is designed for directly stacking up to 3 of the smallest version (Ekspress-1000K) or 2 of the bigger ones. *Ekspress-1000K (

: ): The smallest platform. It is designed for spacecraft up to , with space for of payload and up to 3 kW of power generation and 1.8 kW of heat dissipation. It can be stacked up to three Ekspress-1000K. *Ekspress-1000H (

: ): The middle platform. It is designed for spacecraft up to , with space for of payload and up to 5.6 kW of power generation and 3.5 kW of heat dissipation. It can be dual stacked with Ekspress-1000K or Ekspress-1000H. *Ekspress-1000SH (

: ): The biggest platform. It is designed for spacecraft up to , with space for of payload and up to 8 kW of power generation and 5 kW of heat dissipation. It can be dual stacked with an Ekspress-1000K. *Ekspress-1000HT (

: ): Evolution of the SH platform. *Ekspress-1000HTA (

: ): Evolution of the HT platform. *Ekspress-1000HTV (

: ): Evolution of the HTA platform.

Ekspress-2000 Series

The Ekspress-2000 (

: ) is the fruits of the collaboration with

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...

and their

Spacebus 4000 Spacebus is a satellite bus produced at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France by Thales Alenia Space. Spacebuses are typically used for geostationary communications satellites, and seventy-four have been launched since development started ...

experience with the Ekspress-1000H. It is a big platform for spacecraft massing up to , with space for of payload and up to 14 kW of power generation and 7.5 kW of heat dissipation. It is, as the rest of the family, a direct to

bus and given its size it is not designed to be stacked. It has an expected design life of 15 years.

Ekspress-4000 Series

The Ekspress-4000 (

: ) is a collaboration with

to mix the best elements of the Ekspress-2000 with the

. It would be a direct to

platform for spacecraft massing up to and having a power production of 14 kW with a life expectancy of 15 years. This would enable more than 60

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight tran ...

of payload. It would lack any

orbit raising In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an physical body, object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an satellite, artificial satellite around an object or pos ...

propulsion, but would keep the

electric propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a sp ...

thrusters (

SPT-100 SPT-100 is a Hall-effect ion thruster, part of the SPT-family of thrusters. SPT stands for ''Stationary Plasma Thruster''. It creates a stream of electrically charged xenon ions accelerated by an electric field and confined by a magnetic field. T ...

) supplied by

OKB Fakel EDB Fakel ( Russian ''ОКБ "Факел"'') is a Russian electric propulsion system development company. It is located in Kaliningrad in Kaliningrad Oblast. It was founded in 1955 as a ''Propulsion laboratory'' of the Soviet Academy of Sciences; ...

for station keeping. It would also use the Russian solar panels and have versions designed for

Molniya orbit A Molniya orbit ( rus, Молния, p=ˈmolnʲɪjə, a=Ru-молния.ogg, "Lightning") is a type of satellite orbit designed to provide communications and remote sensing coverage over high latitudes. It is a highly elliptical orbit with an ...

so important for the northerner regions of Russia. During 2009, the plan was to start with a series of satellites in

HEO Heo is a family name in Korea. It is also often spelled as Hur or Huh, or less commonly as Her. In South Korea in 1985, out of a population of between roughly 40 and 45 million, there were approximately 264,000 people surnamed Heo. The name is al ...

orbits for the Russian government, called Ekspress-RV ). It would be a constellation of three on orbit spacecraft with a fourth backup on Earth, but no further development have been communicated. Nor any of the expected foreign sales were closed.

List of satellites

The Ekspress bus has seen many successes, both for the commercial market and the military programs. Here is a list of all known orders as of July 2016.

References

{{Reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/aonesat-1.htm , title=AOneSat 1 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ekspress-am-6.htm , title=Ekspress-AM 6 (Eutelsat 53A) , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ekspress-80.htm , title=Ekspress 80 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ekspress-103.htm , title=Ekspress 103 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/lybid-1.htm , title=Lybid 1 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/npopm_ekspress-1000.htm , title=ISS Reshetnev: Ekspress-1000 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=March 13, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/npopm_ekspress-2000.htm , title=ISS Reshetnev: Ekspress-2000 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=March 13, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/telkom-3.htm , title=Telkom 3 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/zohreh-1.htm , title=Zohreh 1, 2 , last=Krebs , first=Gunter Dirk , publisher=Gunter's Space Page , date=April 17, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite conference , url=http://www.ciemat.es/sweb/Spain-ISTC-STCU/22abril/ISS.pdf , title=JSC ISS Corporate Presentation , first=Sergey , last=Seyvald , conference=Spain-ISTC/STCU Cooperation , conference-url=http://www.stcu.int/es2010/ , date=22–23 April 2010 {{cite journal , last1=Matveeva , first1=Elena , title="Экспресс-4000" −росси йско -европейска я спутникова я платформа , journal=ISS Reshetnev Journal , date=2008 , issue=5 , pages=8–9 , url=http://www.npopm.ru/images/File/magazin/2008/m5-screen.pdf , accessdate=21 July 2016 , trans-title=Express-4000 A Russian-European Satellite Platform , publisher=ISS Reshetnev , language=Russian , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/68r5ljxqg?url=http://www.npopm.ru/images/File/magazin/2008/m5-screen.pdf , archivedate=2 July 2012 {{cite journal , title=General-purpose platforms for new-day satellites , journal=ISS Reshetnev Journal , date=2009 , issue=8 , pages=8–9 , url=http://www.iss-reshetnev.com/media/journal/journal-08-2009.pdf , accessdate=21 July 2016 , publisher=ISS Reshetnev {{cite web, url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ekspress1000n.html , title=Ekspress-1000N communication satellite platform , last=Zak , first=Anatoly , publisher=Russian Space Web , date=March 16, 2014 , access-date=2016-07-21 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410105517/http://russianspaceweb.com/ekspress1000n.html , archivedate=2016-04-10 {{cite web, url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ekspress-2000.html , title=Ekspress-2000 satellite platform , last=Zak , first=Anatoly , publisher=Russian Space Web , date=October 26, 2014 , access-date=2016-07-21 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410130111/http://russianspaceweb.com/ekspress-2000.html , archivedate=2016-04-10 {{cite web , url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/glonass-k2.html , title=GLONASS-K2 satellite , last=Zak , first=Anatoly , publisher=Russian Space Web , date=July 14, 2016 , access-date=2016-07-21 {{cite web , url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/uragan_k.html , title=GLONASS-K , last=Zak , first=Anatoly , publisher=Russian Space Web , date=September 29, 2015 , access-date=2016-07-21

External links

ISS Reshetnev
+ Satellite buses