GPCS space communication. Space communication

Everyone who watches TV is aware that without satellites it is impossible to see most well-known TV channels (with the exception of cable TV). And most families have long owned satellite dishes that receive signals better than antennas from the last century. Although it seems to us that satellite television came into our life quite recently, it has existed for quite a long time, and so that it functions stably, and our televisions show a high-quality picture, there are space communication centers. We will go on an excursion to one such center today.

Today, "How It's Done" has a special report on how the largest space communications station in Russia is arranged.

The Dubna Space Communication Center was commissioned in 1980 and timed to coincide with the 1980 Moscow Olympiad to provide broadcasting of games to the countries of Europe and the Atlantic region. After the Olympic Games, the CCS began to be used as an object of government communication between the Kremlin and the leaderships of other countries.

Aleksandr Petrovich Duka, director of the Dubna CCS, told us a lot of interesting things about this object. In addition to this station, in Russia there are 4 more similar ones (5 in total), but not so large. All of them are part of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communication". The space communications center provides work satellite channels communications and television and radio broadcasting.

In total, the space communication system includes

24 transceiver earth stations satellite communications with antenna systems from 2.4 to 32 meters. 27 transmitting and receiving earth stations for telemetry and telecontrol of the spacecraft of the State Enterprise KS, "Eutelsat", "ABS";

11 measuring and monitoring ground stations for conducting orbital tests, providing ground stations with access to the space segment and monitoring the loading of satellite transponders of the western arc of the GP KS, Eutelsat, ABS;

2 independent fiber-optic communication lines with a capacity of 20 Gbit / s (each) operate in the mode of redundancy of each other and ensure reliable communication between the facility and the Shabolovka Technical Center of the State Enterprise KS. They make it possible to connect the Dubna CCS with practically any communication operator in Moscow;

4 high-voltage feeders (2 x 10 kV and 2 x 6 kV) providing redundant power supply to the facility. For the reliable operation of technological equipment, the CFB has an uninterruptible power supply system with a total capacity of 700 KVA. In case of force majeure, the facility's power supply can be provided from an autonomous diesel power plant with a total capacity of 1800 KVA.

As mentioned above, the complex has 24 satellite communication stations with antenna systems ranging from 2.4 to 32 meters, which allow organizing transmission channels through Russian and foreign communication satellites. Since it is impossible to grasp all the antennas from the ground in one frame, I had to steal a photo from sergeydolya which shows everything in sufficient detail.

GKS also owns the largest in Russia orbital constellation of 13 geostationary satellites operating in the C-, Ku-, Ka- and L-bands. Service areas of RSCC spacecraft located on an orbital arc from 14 ° W. up to 145 ° E, cover the entire territory of Russia, the CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, North and South America, Australia.

Broadcasting takes place from a transponder, which is located on the satellite. One satellite can contain 40-60 transponders. Most of them are located above the equator at an altitude of 35,786 km. That's why satellite dishes in the Northern Hemisphere, set to the south.

The mirror, which everyone incorrectly calls a dish, collects the signal coming from the satellites, concentrates it and reflects it on the receiver-transmitter, which is located above the plane of the mirror.

With a satellite orbit altitude of 35 786 km. the path of the beam from the earth takes about 0.12 seconds and the path of the earth-satellite-earth beam takes about 0.24 seconds. In this case, the total real delay when using satellite communications will be almost half a second.

Pay attention to the sign.

The service life of one satellite is 15 years. This time is quite enough for work and provision of satellite communication technologies developing during this time. Then the satellite becomes obsolete, and a new one comes to replace it. Satellites are very expensive, construction and launch of a satellite into geostationary orbit costs 190-230 million dollars.

The main task of the satellite owner is to build, launch and lease to consumers its frequency range.

Large organizations (companies with huge financial capabilities and strong infrastructure) act as the owner. There are only two such organizations in Russia: (OJSC Gazprom Space Systems and FSUE Cosmic Communication), which order the construction, finance the production process and launch the satellites themselves into geostationary orbit. Further, they provide daily operation (correction of the satellite position in orbit, monitoring and control of the operation of onboard equipment).

I know there are space communications specialists among you, is everything all right here?

The territory of the GKS is dotted with satellite dishes of all sizes.

There is even such an unusual shape.

And this is the largest dish - 32 m in diameter. Impressive size.

As we were told, satellite television in Russia is very relevant, which can be noticed if you drive a car along towns or villages, on whose houses there are often rusty Tricolor plates. Laying cables to remote places is quite expensive and unprofitable, and in permafrost regions they are worth their weight in gold, here it should be borne in mind that cables do not last forever.

At the end of the excursion we find ourselves in the main control center.

Here are the company's servers and many monitors, according to the pictures on which specialists monitor the quality of signal transmission.

Now you know how the space communication works, thanks for reading this post!
Special thanks to "Tricolor", which conducted this excursion around the CCS in honor of its 10th anniversary. Since November 15, they have started broadcasting two channels in the "4K Ultra HD" format with a resolution of 3840 × 2160 (for comparison, the HD format is 1920 × 1080).

And goodbye my photo with a plate on my palm. Is it really original?)

If you have a production or service that you want to tell our readers about, write to the address ( [email protected] ) and we will make the best report, which will be seen by thousands of readers of the site

A scene from the film "A Space Odyssey of 2001" (1968)

Imagine that you need to throw a grain of sand through the eye of a needle from a distance of 16,000 kilometers. Scientists were doing about the same when they sent the Rosetta interplanetary station to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2004. In 2015, the station and the comet were at a distance of about 265.1 million km from the Earth. However, reliable communication allowed Rosetta not only to land on the comet, but also to obtain valuable scientific data.

Today, space communication is one of the most complex and promising directions development of communication technologies. Orbiting satellites have already given us GPS, GLONASS, global most accurate digital maps, the Internet and voice communication in the most remote regions of the earth, but we are looking further. How is space communication working now and what awaits us in the future?

The Rosetta Way

The basis of the ground station infrastructure used during the Rosetta mission was computer system Intermediate Frequency Modem System (IFMS) developed by BAE Systems. In addition to decrypting 350 gigabytes of data transmitted by the station, the system allowed the spacecraft to be accurately calculated, acting like a GPS for the solar system.

The IFMS system received and transmitted signals during the entire 10-year mission and accompanied the station for about 800 million kilometers. IFMS allows you to measure speed with an accuracy of a fraction of a millimeter per second, and the position of a spacecraft with an accuracy within a meter at any point in the solar system.

The IFMS modules are housed in the ground stations of the European Space Agency (ESA), which were modernized more than 20 years ago to better receive radio signals from spacecraft. Instead of analog processing - tuning to the signal, filtering and demodulation - the new (at that time) technology made it possible to convert the raw signal into digital form, from which software extracted the necessary information.

After conversion, most of the post-processing of the signal is done with FPGA microchips (field-programmable gate array, FPGA). They are made up of logical blocks that can be connected in parallel to perform computations. This allowed the development of sophisticated algorithms to maintain a high level of noise reduction and stability of signals from space.

To Mars and back

Deep Space Network (DSN) Terrestrial Antenna Network

Basically, satellites provide radio communication as repeaters, but communication with interplanetary spacecraft requires a more advanced system consisting of large antennas, ultra-powerful transmitters and ultra-sensitive receivers.

The data transmission channel to Earth is very narrow - for example, the DSS (Deep Space Stations) parabolic antenna near Madrid receives data at a speed of 720 Kb / s. Of course, the rover transmits only 500-3200 bits per second over the direct channel, but the main channel passes through the orbiting satellite of Mars - about 31 MB of data per day from the rover is obtained, plus data received from the measuring sensors of the satellite itself.

Communication over a distance of 55 million kilometers is supported by the international network of radio telescopes and communications equipment Deep Space Network. DSN is part of NASA. In Russia, for communication with distant spacecraft, they use the famous Eastern Center for Long-Range Space Communication, located not far from Ussuriisk.

Today DSN unites three ground bases located on three continents - in the USA, Spain and Australia. The stations are separated from each other by about 120 degrees of longitude, which allows them to partially overlap each other's coverage areas.

The Mars Odyssey satellite - the longest operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars - communicates with the DSN using a high gain antenna at 8406 MHz. Receiving data from the rovers is carried out on the UHF antenna.

"Roaming" in the solar system

DSS-63

Mars is far from the only place in the universe with which we need to keep in touch. For example, interplanetary probes were sent to Saturn and Titan, while Voyager 1 flew 20 billion kilometers from Earth.

The farther the interplanetary stations fly away from us, the more difficult it is to catch their radio signals. We cannot yet place orbiting satellites throughout the solar system, so we are forced to build huge parabolic antennas.

Take, for example, the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex. The main parabolic antenna of the DSS-63 complex has a mirror with a diameter of more than 70 meters and a weight of 3.5 thousand tons. To track the probes, the antenna rotates on four ball bearings weighing one ton each.

The antenna not only receives the signal, but also transmits. And although the trajectory of the Earth's motion and rotation has long been calculated and recalculated, finding a small object in space in order to accurately direct a huge antenna at it is a very difficult task.

To search for distant objects, radio triangulation is used. The two ground stations compare the exact angle at which the signal hits the antenna mirror at different intervals, and thus the distance to the object and its location are calculated.

Deep space communications centers

Development in the 50s. the first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) R-7 equipped with radio control, delivered to its creators difficult task- it was necessary to build large network measuring stations that could determine the speed and correct the flight of the rocket.

To support the launch of the first satellites, equipment originally developed for ballistic missile testing has been upgraded and deployed at scientific measuring stations (NIPs). From them, the transmission of commands to spacecraft was carried out.

Dozens of NPCs have been built in the country. Part of the measuring equipment was placed on special ships of the Navy. The ships took part in tests of all types of Soviet ICBMs, artificial satellites and automatic interplanetary stations, provided all development and standard near-earth and lunar flights of Soviet spaceships.

After the collapse of the USSR, the ships of the measuring complex were destroyed with rare exceptions. However, other objects important for space communications have survived. For geographic reasons, the most important command and measurement points were created in Crimea (16th NIP - Western Center for Deep Space Communication) and in the Primorsky Territory (15th NIP - East Center distant space communications known as the object "Ussuriysk").

The Western Center in Yevpatoria received and processed information from the first automatic station "Luna", maintained communication with interplanetary stations of the "Venus", "Mars", "Echo" series, and controlled spacecraft in many other projects.

The main object of the Center is the ADU-1000 antenna with 8 parabolic mirrors with a diameter of 16 meters.

The "Ussuriysk" facility was created in 1965 as a result of the transfer of the Radio-electronic unit of the military-space forces in the area of the village of Galyonki, 30 km west of the city of Ussuriysk. In 1985, one of the world's largest antennas, the RT-70 with a mirror diameter of 70 m, was built here (the same antenna is located in the Crimea).

RT-70 continues to operate and will be used in the country's most promising developments - in the new Russian lunar program, starting in 2019 (the Luna-25 project), and for the world's only orbital X-ray astronomy project for the next 15 years, Spektr-Roentgen -Gamma".

Maximum speeds

Operation of the Deep Space Optical Communication device.

Currently, there are about 400 commercial communications satellites in Earth orbit, but there will be many more in the near future. ViaSat has announced a joint project with Boeing to launch three next-generation satellites with a capacity of more than 1 Tbit / s - more than all operating satellites combined for 2017.

ViaSat plans to provide 100 Mbps Internet access worldwide at 20 GHz using phased array antennas as well as multi-position data transmission systems.

SpaceX plans to start launching more than 12,000 communication satellites into orbit already in 2019 (30 times more flying today!), Which will operate at frequencies of 10.7-18 GHz and 26.5-40 GHz.

As you can imagine, it is necessary to ensure the control of the entire orbital constellation of satellites in such a way as to prevent collisions of vehicles. In addition, projects are being considered for creating communication channels with all artificial objects of the solar system. All of these requirements are forcing engineers to accelerate the deployment of new channels.

Interplanetary telecommunications in the radio frequency spectrum have increased eight orders of magnitude in bandwidth since 1960, but we still lack the speed to transmit high-definition images and video, let alone communicate with thousands of objects simultaneously. One of the promising ways to solve the problem is laser communication.

For the first time, space laser communication was tested by Russian scientists on the ISS on January 25, 2013. In the same year, a two-way laser communication system between the Moon and the Earth was tested on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. It was possible to achieve a data transfer rate of 622 Mbit / s from the device to the ground station, and 20 Mbit / s from the ground station to the device located at a distance of 385,000 km from the Earth.

The Laser Communications Project (LASERCOM) in the future will be able to solve the issue of communications in near-Earth space, the solar system and, possibly, in interstellar missions.

Laser communications in deep space will be tested during the Psyche mission. The probe will launch in 2022 and reach the metal asteroid 16 Psyche in 2026. Special equipment for Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) will be installed on board the probe to transfer more data. DSOC should increase the communication performance and efficiency of spacecraft by 10-100 times over conventional means, without increasing mass, volume, power and spectrum.

The use of laser communications is expected to revolutionize future space missions.

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Today, no one is surprised by the many satellite dishes on the roofs of residential buildings. The cosmic connection has firmly entered the life of an ordinary man in the street. Even in remote areas, it is now possible to watch TV programs and use the Internet services, while having a high signal strength. But all this became possible thanks to the work of the space communication centers, which will be discussed in this article.

Worldwide network

V modern world the net girdles the whole world. In Russia, the opportunity to receive high-quality television signals is provided by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications". It is one of the ten largest satellite operators in the world, with its own TV program compression center. In addition, it provides multiplexing of digital streams, forms packages of federal TV and radio broadcasting programs.

Space component

The enterprise consists of an orbital constellation of 12 satellites of all ranges. The service area of satellites is the entire territory of Russia, the CIS, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Australia, North and South America, as well as the Asia-Pacific region. The orbital location on the orbital arc is from 14 ° West longitude to 145 ° East longitude.

Terrestrial component

The infrastructure that is on the ground is the five centers of space communications. They are located throughout Russia. In its activities, the enterprise is guided by the Federal Target Program for the Development of Television and Radio Broadcasting in Russian Federation for 2009-2018. The range of services provided is very wide:

Space communication systems

Information transmission over the Earth-space satellite channel and vice versa is carried out different ways... In space, telemetry, telephone, telegraph and television systems are used. The most popular is the radio communication system. The main distinguishing features of space communication with flying space objects are as follows:

the constantly changing position of spacecraft;
continuous change in the frequency of the signal at the reception;
limited line-of-sight zones with ground communication points;
limiting the power of transmitters located on spacecraft;
huge communication range.

Development of space communications

Everyone knows that the first contact with a man in space took place in 1961. The cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin; throughout his entire flight, a stable two-way Earth and the Vostok spacecraft were maintained in the range of meter and decameter waves.

Subsequently, the space communication with the earth was improved, and already in August 1961, during the flight of the cosmonaut G.S. Titov appeared with a television image reduced to 10 frames per second. Today, television systems of the usual standard are used, and the communication range reaches 350 million kilometers (for flights to Mars).

Technological and economic component

The service life of a satellite in orbit is about 15 years. During this time, the development of new communication technologies takes place. One satellite to be launched into orbit costs up to $ 230 million and the owner's task is to launch and effectively use it as a lease object. There are only two in Russia large corporations, which can afford to have a satellite in geostationary orbit - FSUE "Cosmic communication" and JSC "Gazprom Space Systems".

Short wave problems

Radio communication with airplanes located at distances of more than 1,000 kilometers is carried out in the short-wave range. But in the modern world, this range is no longer enough. The reasons for this situation are as follows:

in the short-wave range, about a thousand radio stations can operate without significant interference, and today there are many more of them.
The ever increasing level of interference requires the use of more powerful transmitters.
The fundamental defect of such a range is multipath propagation of waves and the effect of signal fading at the point of reception. This makes it almost impossible to communicate in this range of not very long distances.

The ultrashort wavelength range is less loaded, but the reception is carried out only in the field of view.

Exit - satellites

It is the presence of a signal repeater in space, namely on satellites, that gives prospects and opens up new opportunities for the development of space communications. It will be able to provide reliable communication with distant objects in space and cover the planet's surface with a reliable radio and television backbone grid. Active and passive signal repeaters can be installed on satellites, and the satellites themselves can be both stationary (stationary relative to the Earth) and flying in low orbits.

The Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications" (RSCC) is a Russian national satellite communications operator, whose spacecraft have a global coverage, has the largest in Russia orbital constellation of 11 geostationary satellites operating in the C-, Ku- and L-bands. The service areas of RSCC spacecraft cover the entire territory of Russia, the CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, North and South America, Australia.

Assets

RSCC provides a full range of communication and broadcasting services using its own satellite constellation and ground-based technical means. RSCC operates in all geographically accessible markets, providing communication and broadcasting services to clients from 35 countries of the world, and is one of the ten largest satellite operators in the world in terms of the volume of orbital-frequency resource.

For 2012, the RSCC satellite constellation includes 11 satellites in the geostationary orbit arc from 14 degrees west to 140 degrees east longitude.

The RSCC includes five teleports on the territory from the Moscow Region to the Khabarovsk Territory - Space Communication Centers (SCC):

"Bear Lakes" (Shchelkovo district of Moscow region),
"Dubna",
Zheleznogorsk and
"Khabarovsk",

a high-speed fiber-optic network; and the Shabolovka Technical Center in Moscow. The Shabolovka shopping center is a center for switching fiber-optic communication lines connecting teleports with international centers switching.

In the Shabolovka shopping center, RSCC has deployed its own center for program compression and multiplexing of digital transport streams, which ensures the formation of packages of federal television and radio programs for subsequent ascent to RSCC satellites (including in the MPEG4 standard).

The ambitious development strategy of RSCC was determined until 2020 and provides for the creation and operation of the most modern spacecraft (at the end of 2012, at the order of RSCC, a record 7 satellites are being built at the same time), the transformation of the business model of the enterprise from infrastructure to universal. RSCC's strategic goal until 2020 is to become one of the five largest global players in the satellite communications market.

History

2019: Opening of the updated MCC in Skolkovo

On June 14, 2019, information appeared that the "Space Communication" (GP KS) opened renovated Center flight control (MCC) at Skolkovo. The company explained the need to improve the MCC by the upcoming launches of new satellites. GP KS expects to launch seven satellites into geostationary orbit (GSO) and four into high elliptical orbit (HEO) by 2026. More details.

2016

Growth of revenue by 24% to 11.4 billion rubles

The revenue of FSUE "Space" communication amounted to 11.4 billion rubles. This is 24% more than in 2015, when the company earned 9.2 billion rubles.

State Enterprise KS has noticeably increased the share of income from international activities. If in 2015 it was 30% in general structure revenue, then in 2016 it increased to 40%. This growth, in particular, was the result of the company's entry into the Latin American market and the expansion of its client base in South Africa.

Despite the growth in revenue from foreign projects, in the GP KS believe that 2016 could be even more effective in this regard, if it were not for the difficulties with the order of the Express-AMU2 satellite, which was originally planned to be launched just in 2016.

“Thanks to the renewal of the satellite constellation, we have got spacecraft that significantly expand our capabilities in the Middle East, Latin America, India, Pakistan, South Asia. . We counted on "AMU-2", but the work on it, as you know, has not been completed, "- explained the deputy general director for business development SE KS Drozdova Ksenia

Signs of abuse of monopoly position were found in "Cosmic Communications"

In particular, signs of discrimination were revealed in the mechanism of access to space infrastructure, said Anton Pastukhov, deputy head of the FAS Aviation, Rocket and Space and Nuclear Industry Control Department.

Violations were revealed not only in the activities of the RSCC itself, but also in the work of “the federal authorities supervising the enterprise”. This is the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz). In addition, the FAS added that RSCC tried to obstruct the inspection and did not provide the antimonopoly authority with the requested materials.

A source in the satellite communications market believes that the real reason for such sharp attacks by the FAS against RSCC is the contradictions that RSCC and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications have. “The new leadership of the ministry tried to actively interfere in the economic activities of the RSCC, which caused discontent among the heads of the enterprise,” says a CNews interlocutor. For example, at the request of the ministry to provide it with certain materials, the RSCC responded by requiring the employees of the department to fill in a form for access to classified documents in advance.

2015: Forecast of annual revenue - 9.2 billion rubles

According to the results of 2015, the revenue of FSUE "Space Communication" should amount to 9.2 billion rubles, and by the end of 2016 it should reach 12 billion rubles. Such a forecast within the framework of the RSCC conference was announced in February 2016 by its head Yuri Prokhorov.

"Growth in revenue, growth in net profit allows us to return the loans that we attracted for the construction of spaceships and think about the development of the group," he added. By the way, the net profit predicted after the RSCC audit procedure should amount to 2.5 billion rubles.

About 41-42% of RSCC's revenue in 2015 came from foreign clients. In 2016, FSUE will continue to develop foreign projects, in particular, it intends to launch a satellite project in India with the participation of GeoTelecommunications.

2014

Revenue growth by 36.7%

The revenue of the Russian national operator FSUE Space Communications (RSCC) in 2014 increased by 36.7 percent and amounted to eight billion rubles, compared with 5.85 billion rubles last year.

The number of Internet broadband access network (BBA) subscribers has exceeded 5.5 thousand users. RSCC is developing a satellite communication system in the Ka-band, the Internet access service is provided on the territory of the European part of Russia using the KA-SAT (9E) satellite.

In the first quarter of 2015, the satellite broadband access service will be available to residents of the Far East and Siberia (on the new Russian satellite "Express-AM5"). In the third quarter, it is planned to add the Central and South Ural regions to the coverage area (on the Express-AM6 satellite).

In 2015, it is planned to launch three RSCC spacecraft: the Express-AM7 and Express-AM8 satellites in the first quarter and the Express-AMU1 spacecraft in the fourth quarter.

"Space connection" sees no reason to reform

The management of "Kosmicheskaya Svyaz" was skeptical about the initiatives of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications to change the scheme of financing and corporatization of the enterprise. The proposed measures will not lead to savings budget funds, but will cause inconvenience for many participants in the process and reduce the number of launches, they say in the company.

2003-2009: Launch of 7 new satellites

In the period from 2003 to 2009, the satellite constellation of the enterprise was replenished with seven satellites of the Express-AM series and one small spacecraft Express-MD1. At the same time, RSCC assumed control and management of its own satellites, which made it possible to significantly improve the quality and reliability of the services provided.

The company's efforts to develop modern infocommunication services and enter new regional markets also did not go unnoticed - at the international summit on satellite communications, which took place in September 2009 in Paris, RSCC was recognized as the best regional satellite operator of the year in the world.

For 2013 FSUE "Space Communication" is the third oldest operating satellite operator in the world.

2001: Transformation into the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communication"

On April 19, 2001, RSCC received the status of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE "Space Communications" or RSCC).

2000: Launch of the first satellites of the Express-A series

In 1998, within the framework of the Federal Space Program of Russia, RSCC entered into a contract with the domestic manufacturer of spacecraft NPO PM for the development and production of new modern satellites of the Express-A series with improved technical parameters, for which the payload was provided by the French company Alcatel. In 2000, two satellites of this series were successfully launched into orbit, which became the harbingers of the development and implementation of the Program to update the Russian national satellite constellation.

1980: Satellite TV broadcast of the Olympics in Moscow

One of the main stages in the history of RSCC was the organization of television satellite broadcasts of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. To solve this most difficult task at that time, the Dubna Space Communication Center was created in the Moscow Region, which is currently the largest teleport in Russia and Eastern Europe. In connection with the preparations for the Olympic broadcasts, the Vladimir Space Communications Center in the Vladimir Region (founded in 1971) also received an additional impetus for development. Ground-based technical means of RSCC successfully provided worldwide coverage of the Olympic Games and live broadcasts throughout the Soviet Union and other states, including the countries of the Atlantic region.

In the 80s, work on the development of a civil satellite communications constellation was practically stopped. The first new Russian communications and broadcasting satellite, Express, began operating only 15 years after the launch of the first Gorizont.

In the early 90s, the new economic situation in the country contributed to the fact that defense industry enterprises offered their achievements to consumers at the level of world standards. A new stage in the development of satellite communications and broadcasting in Russia in the 90s is associated with the use of not only foreign relay equipment, but also with the use of the best achievements of domestic technologies in the field of instrumentation.

1976: The world's first direct broadcast satellite system

The history of RSCC is inextricably linked with the creation of domestic communication and broadcasting satellites. In the USSR, priority was given to the creation of manned and scientific spacecraft, as well as special-purpose systems, so the first domestic geostationary communication satellites were noticeably inferior in their technical parameters to foreign counterparts. However, there were also unique developments: for example, in 1976, the USSR launched the world's first geostationary direct broadcast satellite "Ekran". The Ekran system operated in the frequency range below 1 GHz and had a high power of the onboard repeater transmitter (up to 300 W), which made it possible to cover sparsely populated areas in Siberia, the Far North and part of the Far East with television broadcasting. For its implementation, the frequencies 714 and 754 MHz were allocated, at which it was possible to create fairly simple and cheap receiving devices. The Ekran system became, in fact, the world's first direct satellite broadcasting system.

1968: Creation of the "Space communication station"

In 1968, by order of the Ministry of Communications of the USSR, the "Space Communication Station" was formed, which eventually became the operator of the Russian orbital constellation of communication and broadcasting satellites for civil purposes - the State Enterprise "Space Communication" (RSCS).

1967: Communication system "Orbit"

In 1965-1967. in record time in the eastern regions of the USSR, 20 earth stations "Orbit" and a new central transmitting station (cabin K-40) were simultaneously built and put into operation on the territory of the radio engineering range of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in the Shchelkovsky district of the Moscow region, which became the first receiving and transmitting earth station RSCC (today one of the key objects of the enterprise's ground infrastructure is located here - the Medvezhye Ozyora Space Communication Center). The Orbita system became the world's first circular, television, distribution satellite system, in which the capabilities of satellite communications are most effectively used.

When creating the Orbita system, much attention was paid to the selection of sites for the placement of earth stations. The site for the construction of earth stations was chosen as close as possible to the telecentres, and so that the influence of interference from tropospheric radio relay lines operating in the same frequency range was excluded. An important decision in the development of the system was the transition to the use of relatively small parabolic antennas, with a mirror diameter of 12 m, while at that time stations with huge and expensive antennas with a diameter of 25-32 m were being built in the Intelsat international system.

Since November 4, 1967 broadcasts of programs of the central television in the "Orbit" system have become regular. This day is considered to be RSCC's birthday.

In the 50-60s of the XX century, the recognized world leaders in the field of space exploration were the USSR and. The first artificial Earth satellite, created by a group of Soviet scientists under the leadership of the founder of practical cosmonautics Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, was successfully launched into orbit on October 4, 1957. This event marked the beginning of the space age of humanity.

Already at the beginning of the 60s, the commercial feasibility and vital necessity of creating communication and television broadcasting satellites became obvious. With the advent of domestic satellites of the Molniya series and American satellites Telstar, the rapid development of satellite communications all over the world began. The USSR pioneered the use of communication satellites in a highly elliptical orbit and the development of satellite direct television broadcasting.

The USSR became the first country to initiate the development of direct television broadcasting and the use of satellites in a highly elliptical orbit for communications and broadcasting. In 1965, highly elliptical communication satellites of the Molniya series began to operate, and in 1976 the world's first geostationary direct television broadcasting satellite, Ekran-M, was launched.

In the 50-60s of the XX century, the USSR and the USA were the recognized world leaders in the field of space exploration. In the mid-60s, with the appearance of the Soviet "Molniya" satellite and the American "Telstar", the rapid development of satellite communications began throughout the world. Over the past years, a large number of satellite communication and broadcasting systems have been created in the world, differing in functions, areas served, composition, capacity.

Already at the beginning of the 60s, the commercial feasibility and vital necessity of creating communication and television broadcasting satellites became obvious. The USSR became the first country to initiate the development of direct television broadcasting and the use of satellites in a highly elliptical orbit for communications and broadcasting. In 1965, highly elliptical communication satellites of the Molniya series began to operate, and in 1976 the world's first geostationary direct television broadcasting satellite, Ekran-M, was launched.

In 1967, on the territory of the radio engineering testing ground of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in the Moscow region, a simple aluminum K-40 cabin with receiving and transmitting equipment was installed. An antenna mounted on the test site was used to broadcast the signal. On November 2, 1967, the first test session of satellite communication with Vladivostok took place. The central television signal received from Ostankino was transmitted via the Molniya-1 satellite. This was the first step in the development of satellite communications. On October 20, 1967, the Orbita system began broadcasting TV and radio programs via the Molniya-1 satellite. Thus, in February 1968, by order of the Ministry of Communications of the USSR, the "Union Radio Broadcasting and Radio Communication Center No. 9" was formed, which eventually became the head state operator of the space constellation of artificial earth satellites, the State Enterprise "SPACE COMMUNICATION" (RSCS), and on April 19, 2001 RSCC received the status of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise.

In 1998, within the framework of the Russian Federal Space Program, RSCC signed a contract with the Russian spacecraft manufacturer NPO PM for the development and production of new modern satellites of the Express-A series with improved technical parameters, the payload for which was provided by the French company Alcatel. In 2000, two satellites of this series were successfully launched into orbit, which became the harbingers of the development and implementation of the Program to update the Russian national satellite constellation.

In 1997, RSCC won the competition announced by the Eutelsat organization and signed a 12-year contract to provide control and management of the Eutelsat-W series satellites. The process of expanding monitoring services for satellites "Eutelsat" and "Intelsat" is underway. For the development of international satellite communications in accordance with the development program of the International Organization of Satellite Communications "Intersputnik" in 1998, on the basis of the RSCC in the SCS "Dubna", a center for control and communication with satellites "LMI" was created.

CCS "Dubna "

The Space Communications Center (SCC) "Dubna" - a branch of the FSUE "Space Communications" (RSCC) - was commissioned in 1980 by order of the USSR Minister of Communications as an Olympic facility.

The task of the CCS "Dubna" in the year of the Moscow Summer Olympics was to ensure the broadcast of the Olympic Games to the countries of Europe and the Atlantic region. The technical means consisted of a technical building and two antenna systems. The first antenna, МАРК-4 (32 meters), manufactured by the Japanese corporation "NEC", was intended to operate through the International Space Communications Organization "Intelsat" at 335.5 ° E. The second antenna, TNA-57 (12 meters), of Soviet production, was used to operate via the Gorizont satellite at 14 ° W.

After the end of the Olympic Games in Moscow, the operation of the technical means of the "Dubna" SCS continued. Telephone channels were organized to the United States, England, Brazil, government communication lines between the Kremlin and the White House, the Elysee Palace, residences at 10 Downing Street. Television news exchanges with foreign countries were carried out on a regular basis. Practically all TV spots first passed through Dubna and then were inserted into the news programs of the central television.

In 1982, the International Experimental Site was built and put into operation for testing new satellite communications technology in the 11/14 GHz, 20 and 30 GHz frequency bands. The created network of receiving and transmitting satellite stations and terrestrial radio relay lines made it possible to study the conditions for the propagation of radio waves in promising satellite radio bands. The experiments ended in 1998.

At the end of the 70s, when the task arose to cover central and eastern Siberia with television broadcasting, a television broadcasting system in the 700 MHz frequency range was created in the country, which has no analogues in the world to this day. The settlements of the BAM builders, the oil and gas workers of Siberia, the sailors of the Northern Sea Route were able to receive first one and then the second central television programs for cheap receiving installations that did not need expensive parabolic antennas.

To carry out television broadcasting in Dubna, two transmitting stations with TNA-57 antennas (12 meters) were built, and in 1988 regular television broadcasts of two central programs to Siberia began. Thanks to this, the number of receiving stations, combined with low-power television repeaters for installation in small villages, has increased, and today there are already more than 10 thousand of them.

In the early 90s, the demand for satellite trunk telephone lines and for the organization of satellite TV broadcasting channels increased sharply. The commercial television companies that appeared used the RSCC's technical means to distribute television programs via satellites - TV-6, NTV, TV-Center and STS began their work in Dubna. Sovintel has built an Ostankino-Dubna digital radio relay line to transmit telephone traffic to satellite lines across the Atlantic.

In 1996, RSCC took part in the international competition for the construction of the third telemetry and telecontrol station for space vehicles of the Eutelsat organization. The decision to participate in the competition was based on the RSCC's experience of operating the command-measuring station for the Express and Hals spacecraft at the Vladimir SCS. This is the first time an international tender of this level has been won Russian company and a contract was signed in 1997 for the construction of eight telemetry and telecontrol antennas for ten Eutelsat spacecraft. The experience gained in cooperation with Eutelsat has been implemented in similar projects to monitor the load of Intelsat and LMI satellites.

The Space Communication Center (SCC) "Vladimir" is a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communication" (RSCC).

In 1969, the foundation was laid for the technical building (TZ) No. 1, from where, in November 1971, the television program of the Central Television began to be transmitted to the network of Orbita receiving stations, analogue trunk telephone streams were organized to the Far East (Komsomolsk-on-Amur ) and Cuba via an artificial earth satellite (AES) "Molniya-2". In 1978, the receiving and transmitting equipment of TZ No. 1 was reconstructed to operate through the "Raduga" satellite in the mode of organizing television and radio broadcasting and telephony. In 1986, work began through the "Stationar-13" satellite.

In 1975, on the basis of the new TZ No. 2, the transmission of television and radio broadcasting programs, the exchange of telephone streams with the cities of the Far East and Siberia was organized.

In 1971, the construction of TZ No. 3 began. The new equipment was put into operation in 1974 and until 1988 carried out the transmission of television programs and exchange of telephone streams with the northeastern regions of the country (Chukotka, Kamchatka, Kuriles, Sakhalin); carried out commutation of government communication lines with the USA and exchange of telephone channels with foreign countries (Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, etc.), using the Gradient-N equipment in the Intersputnik system through the Molniya-3 satellite. In the period from 1987 to 1990. The transceiver equipment was modernized and began to work through the "Stationar-11" satellite in the modes of television, telephony and broadcasting channels.

In 1976, satellite communication devices installed in the new TZ No. 4 made it possible to organize work in the direct television broadcasting system (NTV) for transmitting a television program to the network of Ekran-M receiving stations in remote settlements of Siberia and the Far North. In July 1988, work on the Ekran-M system was transferred to the Dubna CCS. In 1990, the equipment installed in TZ No. 4 began operating in the mode of transmitting television and radio broadcasting programs and exchanging telephone streams through the "Stationar-12" satellite. In 2000, on the basis of TZ No. 4, a full-fledged standby-calibration earth station was deployed with the possibility of redundancy for the earth station of the TsKS "Vladimir" in all stems of the 6/4 GHz range.

In 1977, construction began on TZ No. 5 for the installation of satellite transceiver equipment for broadcasting the Moscow Olympic Games. The complex worked through a new 8-barreled satellite "Horizon" in a five-zone broadcasting mode television channels and provided telephone communication with the countries of Western Europe. In July-August 1980, transmissions from the Olympic Games to the countries of the Western Hemisphere and the exchange of telephone streams in the Intersputnik system were carried out through the communication equipment of TZ No. 5. Since October 1980, the complex has been used to transmit television and radio broadcasting programs and images of newspaper strips in the Orbit and Moskva systems through the Stationar-5 satellite, exchange telephone streams with the cities of Central Asia and Siberia. In 1981, a transportable autonomous transceiver station of satellite communications "Mars" was installed at the facility to reserve the technical means of the RSCC, later converted into a stationary satellite complex for transmitting television and radio broadcasting programs to a network of receiving stations, exchanging telephone streams through the satellite "Stationar-12 ".

Since 1996, on the basis of TZ No. 4 and No. 5, the Express complexes of the C- and Ku-bands have been created and put into operation for operation on the new AES "Express" at the point of 80 ° east longitude.

In 1999, a satellite communication earth station of OJSC Rostelecom was installed on the territory of the Vladimir SCS, operating through the LMI-1 spacecraft at a point of 75 ° east longitude.

Since 1995, the "Kashtan" command-measuring complex has been in operation at the Vladimir SCS, which provides control and exchange of telemetric and command information for the "Express", "Express-A" and other spacecraft.

The Medvezhye Ozera Space Communications Center (SCC) is a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Space Communications”.

In 1967, on the territory of the radio engineering testing ground of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in the Moscow region, a simple aluminum K-40 cabin with receiving and transmitting equipment was installed. An antenna mounted on the test site was used to broadcast the signal. On November 2, 1967, the first test session of satellite communication with Vladivostok took place. The central television signal received from Ostankino was transmitted via the Molniya-1 satellite. This was the first step in the development of satellite communications. Later, regular TV and radio transmissions were organized to the regions of Siberia and the Far East via the Molniya-1 satellite. To solve these problems, the TNA 57 antenna (12 meters) was installed in 1969, which since 1970 began to be used for other important state tasks: through it, a direct government communication line between the USSR and the USA was organized, which had been operating for many years.

In 1978, a communication channel was organized with the Baikonur cosmodrome. The transported station "Mars-1" was installed in the city of Leninsk and was serviced for many years by specialists from the Medvezhye Ozera CCS on a rotational basis.

In 1980, in connection with the visit of the head of state, the transported station "Mars-2" was installed in India.

In the same year, a radio relay line was installed between the Medvezhye Ozera CCS and the Ostankino television center, and the station itself, which operated in the Orbita system, was equipped with brand new equipment for event coverage Olympic Games... The station of the Orbita system provided the transmission of reports to Europe and America through the TNA-57 antenna, the large diameter of which guaranteed high-quality and reliable communication for the huge corps of journalists who worked at the Olympics.

In 1982 and 1986. Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR were held, in connection with which the modernized transportable station "Mars-2" was installed in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

In the early 1980s, part of the functions of the Bear Lakes CCS were transferred to the Vladimir CCS and Dubna CCS. A group of specialists was created to install receiving stations in embassies and consulates. Receiving stations of the "Moscow" and "Moscow-global" type provided reception of television and radio broadcasting by the embassies located both in Moscow and in the countries of Scandinavia, Africa, America and Southeast Asia.

CCS "Sokolovo "

SCS "Skolkovo" - a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communication" - was founded in October 2003. Today the Center has a modern set of equipment for organizing digital satellite broadcasting. The main activity of the Skolkovo CCS is to ensure the broadcast of domestic and foreign television and radio programs via the direct television broadcasting satellites "Eutelsat W4" (36 ° east) and "Bonum-1" (56 ° east) to the territory of the European part of Russia , The Urals and Siberia.

Through the reception and formation center digital channels the distribution of television and radio programs to the receiving installations of terrestrial distribution networks, headend stations of cable broadcasting networks and receiving installations of collective use networks is carried out.

Direct broadcast satellites are also used for broadcasting data. At present, a project has been implemented for data transmission for the Ministry of Education's network (access of rural schools to Internet resources), and commercial access to the Internet is provided via the W4 satellite.

A fiber-optic communication line has been organized between the Skolkovo CCS and the Ostankino TTTS.

A Mission Control Center (MCC) of the Bonum-1 satellite has been created at the Skolkovo SCS, which makes it possible to control and monitor several spacecraft based on the HS376 platform. Also, work is underway to create a flight control center for small communication satellites. It is planned that the first such spacecraft will be the Kazakh satellite Kazsat being created.

CCS "Zheleznogorsk "

TsKS "Zheleznogorsk" - a branch of FSUE "Cosmic communication" (RSCS) - was organized in April 2004 on the basis of CJSC NTF "Perseus" as a strong point of the eastern part of the space constellation RSCC. The Zheleznogorsk SCS technical complex allows control and monitoring of communication satellites in orbital positions from 32 ° to 154 ° E. Federation, as well as organize satellite communication channels on the territory of the Siberian Federal District.

The automated system for monitoring and orbital measurements (ASMI), created as part of the RSCC satellite constellation update program, provides the ability to simultaneously track 5 satellites of the Express-A and Express-AM series.

The backup flight control center provides control and management of satellites at all stages life cycle after launch, and also supports the Eutelsat flight control center in case of emergency situations during the operation of the Sesat satellite.

CCS "Khabarovsk "

CCS "Khabarovsk" - a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communication" - was founded in 2004.

The main task of the new CKS is to create a satellite multiservice telecommunication network of the Far Eastern Federal District (DFO).

The earth stations deployed at the Khabarovsk SCS are used to organize satellite communication channels via the Express-A satellite (80 ° east longitude).

The technical means of the CCS "Khabarovsk" are supposed to be used for:

implementation of projects within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Electronic Russia", "Children of Russia" (provision of Internet services to schools);

operation of the satellite fragment of the GAS "Vybory" network;

creation of a television studio for the plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District;

provision of mobile presidential and government communications.

Ground-based spacecraft control complex

To improve the reliability of control of new spacecraft, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications" (RSCS) has deployed its own modern unified ground control complex for civil satellites (NKU). The satellites are controlled by the NKU facilities located in the Dubna, Vladimir and Zheleznogorsk Space Communication Centers. The Mission Control Center is located at the Shabolovka Technical Center in Moscow. For orbital measurements, monitoring of repeater trunks, as well as the admission of earth stations automated system monitoring and measuring parameters of satellite on-board relay systems (ASMI).

The Bonum-1 satellite is controlled from the Skolkovo flight control center.

RSCC monitors not only satellites of its own constellation, the high-tech infrastructure of space communication centers allows RSCC to provide operator companies with services for the control and monitoring of satellites in geostationary orbit. Also, RSCC has repeatedly rendered services to foreign companies in the management of spacecraft during their launch into orbit.

FSUE "Space Communication"