Soviet Launches Cover-ups

[Urwumpe]

Can you elaborate on which manned project you believe was a foundation for the Yamals? They are the first Russian commercial satellites with an unpressurized 3-axis stabilized bus, AFAIK. How can they be related to a Soyuz's PAO or whatever?

I thought they are derived from the Luch/Altair satellite system, which is used for communication with the Russian part of the ISS.

But from the looks at it, it really does not look common to the Russian spaceflight history, but still pretty primitive compared to western satellites.

http://www.energia.ru/english/energia/usp/yamal-200/yamal-200_02.html

 

[SiberianTiger]

But from the looks at it, it really does not look common to the Russian spaceflight history, but still pretty primitive compared to western satellites.

http://www.energia.ru/english/energia/usp/yamal-200/yamal-200_02.html

Yep, to quote a Russian classic literature: "I'm telling you, those English don't use a crushed brick to polish their gun barrels inside". Hopefully, this was just a starter project for Energia as a satellite building company (I mean, for the current generation of engineering).

 

[Urwumpe]

Yep, to quote a Russian classic literature: "I'm telling you, those English don't use a crushed brick to polish their gun barrels inside". Hopefully, this was just a starter project for Energia as a satellite building company (I mean, for the current generation of engineering).

Well, I like the Okean satellite series, but I think they still use the pressurized propulsion modules - also they are Ukrainian.

I think it is much more disappointing, that the Russian experience with Hall effect thrusters is not used in commercial ventures yet. Almost all modern satellite buses produced in the west are sold with electrical orbit control engines, but the Russian products mostly rely on bipropellant engines - and in the small thrust range, the western producers are already as good or better as Russian rocket engine producers. The Yamal has the option for electrical engines, from what I can read on the homepage, but you really have to look for it and find it among other alternatives. Also it looks like the Yamal only supports one kind of propulsion system, while modern western satellites use bipropellant engines for coarse corrections together with electrical engines for fine tuning

 

[SiberianTiger]

I think it is much more disappointing, that the Russian experience with Hall effect thrusters is not used in commercial ventures yet.

Aren't they used on Express series satellites, for example?
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/express.html

The NPO PM has outsourced the bulk of the payload design and manufacturing to Alcatel for AM33 and AM44 (see http://www.spacenewsfeed.co.uk/2004/19September2004_1.html), except for the president's mobile communications L-band module, but the bus is still their own, and the Hall thrusters are Russian too.

'course, the most advanced things still go to military apps first.