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Program: Molniya


Means "flash of lightning" in Russian

Soviet telecomunication program. Satellites are placed on very excentric orbits (460/40000 km, inclination: 63°, satellites in 8 planes separated by 45°) with a 12 hours period. Such satellites remain almost 8 hours above the CIS, slowly drifting high in the sky.

Molniya satellites are used by the Orbita network equipped with 12 m antennas. Mars transportable stations could also use the network with 7 m antennas. Mission: provide long distance reliable telephone and TV links. Molniya-1 are used for government and military communications whereas Molniya-3 are used for TV programs.

As the first Molniya-2 satellites were launched the system became available for Intersputnik. The first satellite operated at 1.0/0.8 GHz. C-band (6/4 GHz) was introduced from Molniya 1-07 on. Satellites also use L-band.

In the future, the system could be replaced by Mayak

Molniya 1



Specifications


Prime contractor NPO PM (design OKB-1)
Platform Molniya
Mass at launch  
Mass in orbit 1600 kg
Dimension  
Solar array 1500 W
Stabilization spin stabilized
DC power BOL: 1000 W
Design lifetime 2 years


L-band


Main transponders yes
Backup transponders  
Power  
Bandwidth  
Coverage  
EIRP max  
G/T max  
Polarization  


X-band


Main transponders 1 to 3
Backup transponders  
Power 40 W (TWTA)
Bandwidth  
Coverage  
EIRP  
Polarization  


External resources


http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/sovietsp/molniya.html

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