Two years ago, Roscosmos intended to make
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:21 am
pherical "Messenger"
Speaking at the demo day, Pavel Cherenkov, CEO of JSC Gonets Satellite System, said that on March 29, 2024, Roscosmos granted this company the authority to operate all new orbital constellations included in the federal Sphere program. We are talking about four constellations: Gonets itself (including the fundamentally new Gonets-M1 spacecraft), Express-RV (FSUE Space Communications, RSCC, intended to create this constellation in highly elliptical malta whatsapp resource orbit by 2022), Skif (the initiator of this project in medium Earth orbit was the private company Zond-Holding) and Marathon IoT (this constellation for providing Internet of Things services from low orbit was developed by another non-governmental participant in the satellite communications market, Visat-Tel).
the operator of new non-geostationary constellations Sfera - Space Information Technologies, which is fully owned by the Gonets Satellite System.
Read also
Sphere saddles OneWeb
The Sfera project, which involves the creation of a Russian global multi-satellite system, which Roscosmos has been working on since 2018, will largely rely on the legacy of the British company OneWeb. The project operator, Sfera LLC, was created on the basis of a joint venture between OneWeb and the Gonets Satellite System, and when launching spacecraft into non-geostationary orbits, Roscosmos intends to apply the experience gained during the launch of OneWeb low-orbit satellites on Soyuz rockets.
However, according to ComNews, this has caused difficulties: despite its existence since 2017 and authorized capital exceeding 5.8 million rubles, this legal entity still has no revenue, and transferring large state funds to it would violate financial discipline.
New troubles
Pavel Cherenkov told a ComNews correspondent that obtaining operator authority under the Sfera program allows the Gonets Satellite System to pay for all steps to create ground infrastructure for four orbital constellations, starting with the creation of concrete foundations for interface stations. According to him, the Gonets Satellite System is negotiating with RSCC about placing ground infrastructure for the Skif, Marathon IoT, Express-RV, and Gonets-M1 constellations on the territory of its space communications centers throughout the country.
The operator of Sfera has already thought about merging the ground infrastructure and subscriber devices of all the satellite groups entrusted to it, as well as the unification of spacecraft. In particular, the Gonets Satellite System is working on the possibility of using the payload of the Gonets satellites (onboard radiotechnical complexes Sadko, which are created by the Research Institute of Precision Instruments, which is part of RKS) on the Marathon IoT spacecraft. Pavel Cherenkov also stated that the Gonets Satellite System is open to discussions about the possibilities of commercializing the groups entrusted to it with all market participants.
The Gonets group will also be updated. Pavel Cherenkov recalled that the first such satellites, weighing 750 kg, will be launched in 2027, and all 28 Gonets-M1 spacecraft will be launched into orbit by 2029. They will be in a low orbit - at an altitude of 1,500 km above the Earth. The 18 currently operating Gonets-M spacecraft are also in this orbit. The last three Gonets-M satellites were launched in October 2022. Roscosmos initially intended to launch six more of these spacecraft into orbit, but decided to stop investing in the outdated paging system and redirect funds to the new Gonets-M1 group. If the Gonets-M satellite provides a data transfer rate of only 64 kbps (in the space-to-Earth direction), then Gonets-M1 will increase it to 1 Mbps; At the same time, the Gonets-M1 will also have voice communication.
As ComNews previously reported, the Gonets Satellite System has recently begun creating a ground communications complex for the Gonets-M1 group, which will consist of seven regional interface stations. As Andrey Manoylo, Deputy General Director for Operations of JSC Gonets Satellite System, said at the ProfComm 2023 conference in November 2023, three of them will be located on the territory of the RSCC space communications centers in Vladimir, Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai) and Khabarovsk.
Read also
Speaking at the demo day, Pavel Cherenkov, CEO of JSC Gonets Satellite System, said that on March 29, 2024, Roscosmos granted this company the authority to operate all new orbital constellations included in the federal Sphere program. We are talking about four constellations: Gonets itself (including the fundamentally new Gonets-M1 spacecraft), Express-RV (FSUE Space Communications, RSCC, intended to create this constellation in highly elliptical malta whatsapp resource orbit by 2022), Skif (the initiator of this project in medium Earth orbit was the private company Zond-Holding) and Marathon IoT (this constellation for providing Internet of Things services from low orbit was developed by another non-governmental participant in the satellite communications market, Visat-Tel).
the operator of new non-geostationary constellations Sfera - Space Information Technologies, which is fully owned by the Gonets Satellite System.
Read also
Sphere saddles OneWeb
The Sfera project, which involves the creation of a Russian global multi-satellite system, which Roscosmos has been working on since 2018, will largely rely on the legacy of the British company OneWeb. The project operator, Sfera LLC, was created on the basis of a joint venture between OneWeb and the Gonets Satellite System, and when launching spacecraft into non-geostationary orbits, Roscosmos intends to apply the experience gained during the launch of OneWeb low-orbit satellites on Soyuz rockets.
However, according to ComNews, this has caused difficulties: despite its existence since 2017 and authorized capital exceeding 5.8 million rubles, this legal entity still has no revenue, and transferring large state funds to it would violate financial discipline.
New troubles
Pavel Cherenkov told a ComNews correspondent that obtaining operator authority under the Sfera program allows the Gonets Satellite System to pay for all steps to create ground infrastructure for four orbital constellations, starting with the creation of concrete foundations for interface stations. According to him, the Gonets Satellite System is negotiating with RSCC about placing ground infrastructure for the Skif, Marathon IoT, Express-RV, and Gonets-M1 constellations on the territory of its space communications centers throughout the country.
The operator of Sfera has already thought about merging the ground infrastructure and subscriber devices of all the satellite groups entrusted to it, as well as the unification of spacecraft. In particular, the Gonets Satellite System is working on the possibility of using the payload of the Gonets satellites (onboard radiotechnical complexes Sadko, which are created by the Research Institute of Precision Instruments, which is part of RKS) on the Marathon IoT spacecraft. Pavel Cherenkov also stated that the Gonets Satellite System is open to discussions about the possibilities of commercializing the groups entrusted to it with all market participants.
The Gonets group will also be updated. Pavel Cherenkov recalled that the first such satellites, weighing 750 kg, will be launched in 2027, and all 28 Gonets-M1 spacecraft will be launched into orbit by 2029. They will be in a low orbit - at an altitude of 1,500 km above the Earth. The 18 currently operating Gonets-M spacecraft are also in this orbit. The last three Gonets-M satellites were launched in October 2022. Roscosmos initially intended to launch six more of these spacecraft into orbit, but decided to stop investing in the outdated paging system and redirect funds to the new Gonets-M1 group. If the Gonets-M satellite provides a data transfer rate of only 64 kbps (in the space-to-Earth direction), then Gonets-M1 will increase it to 1 Mbps; At the same time, the Gonets-M1 will also have voice communication.
As ComNews previously reported, the Gonets Satellite System has recently begun creating a ground communications complex for the Gonets-M1 group, which will consist of seven regional interface stations. As Andrey Manoylo, Deputy General Director for Operations of JSC Gonets Satellite System, said at the ProfComm 2023 conference in November 2023, three of them will be located on the territory of the RSCC space communications centers in Vladimir, Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai) and Khabarovsk.
Read also