EDB Fakel (

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 ...

''ОКБ "Факел"'') is a Russian electric propulsion system development company. It is located in

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...

. It was founded in 1955 as a ''Propulsion laboratory'' of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

; in 1962 it obtained status of Design Bureau,

OKB OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military applications. ...

Roskosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

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Overview

Fakel specializes in spacecraft attitude control thrusters, ion engines and plasma sources. It is a world leader in the field of

Hall thruster In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thrus ...

development and a leading Russian developer and manufacturer of electric propulsion systems. The company's third-generation electric propulsion system

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 ...

has been certified in accordance with western standards and the company is actively marketing the system to foreign customers. The company has 960 employees.

Flight missions

Many companies have used Fakel

electrically powered spacecraft 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 s ...

systems on their hardware flown in space. Company's hardware were used on SESAT 1,

Alphasat Inmarsat-4A F4, also known as Alphasat and Inmarsat-XL, is a large geostationary communications I-4 satellite operated by United Kingdom-based Inmarsat in partnership with the European Space Agency. Launched in 2013, it is used to provide mobile ...

, SMART-1,

LS-1300 The SSL 1300, previously the LS-1300 and the FS-1300, is a satellite bus produced by Maxar Technologies. Total broadcast power ranges from 5 to 25 kW, and the platform can accommodate from 12 to 150 transponders. The SSL 1300 is a modular platf ...

, Meteor spacecraft, USP bus,

AMOS-6 AMOS-6 was an Israeli communications satellite, one of the Spacecom AMOS series, that was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a defense and aerospace company. AMOS-6 was intended to be launched on flight 29 of a SpaceX Falcon 9 ...

MobaHo! was a mobile satellite digital audio/video subscription based broadcasting service in Japan, whose services began on October 20, 2004 and ended on March 31, 2009 at 3:00 pm Japan time. MobaHO! used the ISDB digital broadcast specification. The sat ...

Inmarsat-4 F3 Inmarsat-4 F3 is a communications I-4 satellite operated by the British satellite operator Inmarsat. It was launched into a geosynchronous orbit at 22:43 GMT on 18 August 2008, by a Proton-M/Briz-M Enhanced carrier rocket. It is currently located a ...

Astra 1K Astra 1K was a communications satellite manufactured by Alcatel Space for SES. When it was launched on 25 November 2002, it was the largest civilian communications satellite ever launched, with a mass of . Intended to replace the Astra 1B sat ...

, Luch, and many others as well.

Partners

Due to the large experience gained by the company in

electric engines An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

, notable companies have entered into partnership with the company. ISS-Reshetnev -

Khrunichev The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (''Государственный космический научно-производственный центр (ГКНПЦ) имени М. В. Хру́ничева'' in Russian) is ...

TsSKB-Progress The Progress Rocket Space Centre (russian: Ракетно-космический центр «Прогресс»), formerly known as TsSKB-Progress (russian: ЦСКБ-Прогресс), is a Russian joint-stock company under the jurisdiction ...

NPO Lavochkin NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being th ...

RKK Energiya PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...

- Keldysh Research Center
CNIIHM
-

Moscow Aviation Institute Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University) (MAI; russian: Московский авиационный институт, МАИ) is one of the major engineering institutes in Moscow, Russia. Since its inception MAI has been spearhe ...

Aerojet Rocketdyne Aerojet Rocketdyne is an American manufacturer of rocket, Hypersonic flight, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company is owned by Aeroj ...

Snecma Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It ...

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 manufacture ...

Airbus Defence and Space Airbus Defence and Space is the division of Airbus SE responsible for the development and manufacturing of the corporation's defence and space products, while also providing related services. The division was formed in January 2014 during the ...

Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cust ...

- RUAG -

Israel Aerospace Industries Israel Aerospace Industries (Hebrew: התעשייה האווירית לישראל ''ha-ta'asiya ha-avirit le-yisra'el'') or IAI (תע"א) is Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial and astronautic systems for both mi ...

OHB Sweden

Aerospazio

References

External links

Company website
{{authority control Soviet and Russian space institutions Aerospace companies of the Soviet Union Roscosmos divisions and subsidiaries Companies based in Kaliningrad Oblast Federal State Unitary Enterprises of Russia Design bureaus