On 5th February, 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 ambassador of France 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.

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.