Kazakhstan’s National Center of Space Communications (RTSKS) and Russian Information Satellite Systems-Reshetnev Company in June 2011 signed a deal to build the KazSat 3 satellite.

Thales Alenia Space was the communications payload supplier. The satellite is based on an Ekspress-1000NTA platform provided by ISS Reshetnev” and the satellite was integrated and tested in ISS’ premises, Zheleznogorsk, Russia.

KazSat 3 operates at 58.5°E for a 15 years lifetime. The payload power is about 5.5 kW. KazSat 3 will carry 28 active Ku-band transponders covering Kazakhstan.

The Luch-5 are the russian follow-on relay satellites, which replace the Luch (Altair) and Luch-2 (Gelios) satellites. Two satellites named Luch 5A and Luch 5B were procured for launches in 2010 and 2011. The smaller satellites are based on the Ekspress-1000 bus and were be launched with a co-passenger on Proton-M Briz-M boosters.

S- and Ku-band data relay channels of each satellite will be linked with receive/transmit points via satellite communications links.

Each data relay satellite is capable of orienting its high-precision antennas towards low-flying space objects so as to “catch” and “track” them along their trajectories. Moreover, each of the two user antennas is capable of tracking its “own” low-flying space object. One antenna will operate in the Ku-band, the other – in the S-band, with the Ku-band channel capacity at 150 Mbit/s and the S-band channel capacity at up to 5 Mbit/s.