Yamal 201


Yamal 201 was a geostationary communications satellite operated by Gazkom and built by RSC Energia. It was, along with Yamal 202 the second dual launch of the Yamal program and the second iteration of the USP Bus. It was a satellite with 4,080W of power on an unpressurized bus. It had eight SPT-70 electric thrusters by OKB Fakel for station keeping. Its payload was 9 C band and 6 Ku band transponders supplied by Space Systems Loral.

History

During 1997, even before the launch of their first satellites, Gazkom was planning the second generation. At that time they planned a 24 satellites of the second generation. This extremely aggressive plan was scaled back by 2001 with a plan to launch four 200 series satellites. The first two, Yamal 201 and Yamal 202 would be launched by 2001 and the second pair, Yamal 203 and Yamal 204 by 2004. Yamal 201 and Yamal 203 would be identical and be positioned at the 90°E slot and Yamal 202 and Yamal 204 would also be twins and be positioned at the 49°E slot.
Yamal 201 was launched along Yamal 202 November 24, 2003 at 16:2 UTC from Baikonur Site 81/23 by a Proton-K/Blok-DM-2M directly to GEO. The launch and satellite deployment was successful and Yamal 201 was commissioned into service. On June 5, 2014 Yamal 201 failed and the clients had to be moved to other satellites of the network. The satellite lasted 3846 days, short of the design life of 12.5 years.