MOSCOW, JANUARY 13. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV/ -- French company Alkatel Space specialists have brought a payload module for the Russian communication satellite Ekspress-AM11 to the Reshetnev Scientific-Industrial Applied Mechanics Association, based in the city of Zheleznogorsk in East Siberia, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The Ekspress-AM11 satellite is the second craft of a new generation created under a contract with Alkatel on order from the Russian space operator Space Communication.
The group of Russian and French engineers face responsible check-ups of the communication equipment in tandem with the service module, to be followed by the generals trials of the Ekspress craft. Its launch by the Russian heavy carrier rocket Proton is scheduled for April 2004.
The first satellite Ekspress-AM11 of the new generation was put in the geostationary orbit on December 29, 2003.
