Today in Gazprom headquarters Dmitry Sevastiyanov, Director General of Gazprom Space Systems, and Reynald Seznec, CEO of Thales Alenia Space, signed the contract for manufacturing and delivering two Yamal-400 new generation communications satellites.

The France ambassador to Russia Jean de Gliniasty and the Chairman of Gazprom Space Systems board, Gazprom board member – Head of Property and Corporate Managing Department Olga Pavlova also participated in the signing ceremony.

According to the signed document Thales Alenia Space, as the prime contractor, will be responsible for design, manufacture, testing and turnkey delivery of Yamal-401 and Yamal-402 satellites as well as for the associated ground segment deployment. The satellites launch is scheduled for 2011.

Thales Alenia Space was chosen to be the supplier as a result of the open tender held by Gazprom. The important criterion for the choice was the supplier obligation to arrange investment crediting of the project on the world financial market under preferable terms.

The new satellites will allow Gazprom to continue development and significantly enlarge the capacity of its communications satellites orbital constellation fully loaded now. At that the satellites capability and coverage zone will be considerably extended whereby meeting Gazprom needs for high quality communication in all the regions prospective for the company operation including Yamal, Eastern Siberia and Far East, neighboring and far foreign countries.

Moreover Yamal-400 project will have high economical effectiveness thanks to providing Russian and foreign commercial organizations, in particular TV companies, with additional opportunities.

“Gazprom has ambitious and large-scaled tasks for business development. In this connection the large order placement for the new satellites in the best way demonstrates Gazprom aiming at the project implementation despite the economical crisis conditions”, – said Olga Pavlova.

“This project is very important both for our company and for our country. Yamal-400 satellites are extremely necessary for Gazprom entering the new strategically important regions of gas production as well as for strengthening the existing Russian communications satellites orbital constellation. I am sure that our cooperation with Thales Alenia Space will be successful and fruitful”, – noted Dmitry Sevastiyanov.

“We are very proud to have been selected by Gazprom Space Systems for this very important project. The choice of Gazprom Space Systems further strengthens the excellent relations we have been able to build for the Yamal 200 series. Thales Alenia Space will deliver to Gazprom Space Systems the state-of-the-art satellites needed for the ambitious Yamal-400 project. This success also confirms the solid presence that Thales Alenia Space has built up over the last 15 years in conjunction with the main players in the Russian space industry”, – said Reynald Seznec.

Background:

Gazprom subsidiary – Gazprom Space Systems (Gascom before re-branding; Gazprom share - 79,8 %, RSC Energia share – 16,16%, Gazprombank – 4,04%) is a Russian satellite operator. The company operates the orbital constellation consisting of three satellites Yamal-100, Yamal-201 and Yamal-202. The main business directions of the company are creation of space systems of different application, providing satellite telecommunications services and integration of satellite telecommunications systems.

Thales Alenia Space – European leader in satellite systems and a major player in orbital infrastructures, Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio embody the two groups’ “Space Alliance”. Thales Alenia Space sets the global standard in solutions for space telecoms, radar and optical Earth observation, defense and security, navigation and science. The company has a total of 7,200 employees and 11 industrial sites, with design and manufacturing facilities in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

Yamal-400 satellites will be built based on the bus Spacebus 4000C3 developed by Thales Alenia Space. They will have guaranteed lifetime of 15 years.

Yamal-401 satellite will be placed at 90 E orbital slot and will be equipped with 36 Ku-band and 17 C-band transponders providing for the coverage zone over the whole Russian and CIS territory.

Yamal-202 satellite will be placed at 55 E orbital slot and will be equipped with 46 Ku-band transponders providing for the coverage zone over the most part of the territory of Russia, CIS, Europe, Middle East and Africa.