Higher and Stronger: Roscosmos is Squeezing Skif Out Drop by Drop

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In 2024, Roscosmos plans to begin assembling and manufacturing satellites at the premises of JSC Academician M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (JSC Reshetnev). Representatives of the state corporation have planned the launch of spacecraft for 2026-2027 using three Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicles, with two satellites on each.

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Roscosmos has announced argentina whatsapp resource the launch of a program to create satellites for the Skif communications system. 12 devices will be located at an altitude of 8,000 km above the Earth and will provide high-speed Internet access. Experts call this group a temporary measure until low-orbit satellites appear en masse.

Director of the Department of Advanced Programs and the Sfera Project of the Roscosmos State Corporation Sergey Prokhorov told a ComNews correspondent why these dates have been set for the launch: "To ensure high throughput, the satellites must include a modern multi-beam flexible digital payload based on active phased antenna arrays. Developing this type of equipment is a complex scientific and technical task. It has no analogues in Russia, and therefore time is needed to develop and test the latest engineering solutions."

The Skif system is designed to provide high-speed broadband Internet access using small-sized VSAT terminals. Its constellation will consist of 12 satellites operating in three planes with an orbital inclination of 90 degrees to the equator and an altitude of 8,070 km, which will ensure the best quality of service, including in the northern regions of the Russian Federation. The first batch, planned for launch in 2026-2027, consists of six satellites. Roscosmos has not yet disclosed the planned launch date for the second batch.

Deputy CEO of the system integrator for creation, operation and development of satellite communication networks JSC VISAT-TEL Valentin Anpilogov told about the problems Roscosmos faced before launching the spacecraft: "When Roscosmos made the decision to include the Skif project in the Sfera program, it assumed that the payload would be supplied by a foreign partner. There is no such possibility yet, so we have to do it ourselves. In addition, it was assumed that there would be good and cheap subscriber terminals from the American satellite communication company Kymeta. But they did not manage to make good and cheap terminals - now their cost is $20-30 thousand. We have to do it ourselves, too, and this takes time and funding."

In October 2022, Roscosmos launched the Skif-D demonstration satellite into orbit. It completed the flight and experimental testing stage and fulfilled its main task - protecting the orbital frequency resource. The device continues to be used and participate in experiments: in particular, it was possible to achieve a data transfer rate of 6.5 Mbit/s.

Shareholder of the AltegroSky group of companies (satellite communications operator) Sergey Pekhterev believes that the speed indicator is very low: "Currently, there is only a demonstrator satellite in orbit, which has little in common with future devices. It was needed to preserve Skif's rights to the frequency resource in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It was made quickly, in order to be completed before Skif's application for the resource expired. Its parameters and speed of 6.5 Mbit/s are very far from the planned ones - the speed declared for Skif is from 200 Mbit/s to 450 Mbit/s in one beam. But the demonstrator has fully accomplished its main task - to transmit a signal at the frequencies declared in the ITU."

Roscosmos is also working to include the Griffin multi-satellite optical-electronic survey system in the Sfera project, with implementation based on a specialized industry operator and the attraction of external investment.

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