NPO PMResearch and Production Association Applied Mechanics
52 Lenin Street
Krasnoyarsk-26 Russia 660033
Tel +7 39197 320-32
Fax +7 39197 226-35
In 1977 the Ministry of General Machine Building decreed that the Scientific and Production Association of Applied Mechanics (NPO PM) would be established. NPO PM included the Design Bureau of Applied Mechanics (KB PM) and the Mechanical Plant. Mikhail Reshetnev was appointed director general and chief designer of NPO PM.
During the decade 1981-1990 NPO PM continued pursuing a strategy of developing satellite systems for communications, broadcasting, navigation and geodetic applications. The company built and launched a great number of satellites of the Strela, Molniya. Raduga, Ekran and Gorizont series. In 1981 a next-generation Geo-IK satellite was placed into orbit. A space-based system consisting of satellites of this type, helped create two geocentric models of the Earth’s field, obtain more detailed information about its shape, establish a global astronomic and geodetic network.
Successful launch of a navigation satellite Glonass into the medium Earth orbit in 1982 put a new spin on space navigation. This event laid the foundations for the formation of the GLONASS global satellite navigation system which would later rightfully become a source of national pride in Russia.
In the 1980s the company made noticeable progress in the field of satellite data-relaying. In 1982 the Potok satellite was launched into orbit. And three years later the first data-relay satellite of the Loutch series was put into orbit. The two satellites embodied a large number of leading-edge solutions and technologies and, in fact, were ahead of their time.
NPO PM continued the formation of the Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS. In early 1991 flight tests of the system were finally completed and in 1993 the system consisting of 12 navigation satellites was officially commissioned. By the end of the year 1995 the system reached its full operational capability with 24 Glonass navigation satellites operating in orbits.
Aiming to develop a new promising direction – the use of satellite technology for personal communications, NPO PM introduced its Gonets-D series of satellites. They became a good example of how communications of the “e-mail” type can be made available to civil users. On the base of these satellites a LEO system GONETS-D1 was formed.
In those years, the company produced its first satellite that was intended solely for civil purposes. That was the Gals satellite – it was used for international television broadcasting. As well as that, a fixed communications satellite Express was built and launched into orbit. For civil satellites like Gals and Express, NPO PM established an experimental Mission Control Center and the Ground Satellite Control Complex in 1994.
The 1990s became one of the most important and pivotal decades in the company’s history, as NPO PM finally managed to enter the international arena. In 1995 the company started developing a telecommunications satellite SESAT ordered by a satellite operator Eutelsat. It was a joint project between NPO PM and a French company Alcatel Space (now Thales Alenia Space). NPO PM became the first Russian aerospace company to sign a contract with a foreign customer. The most powerful satellite built by a Russian company at that time, SESAT was successfully launched in 2000. The project opened up many opportunities for NPO PM and laid the foundations of its long-term cooperation with largest aerospace companies worldwide.
Needless to say, SESAT was not the only project NPO PM was implementing in the 1990s. The company was also busy developing and manufacturing a fixed communications satellite Express-A with a view of augmenting the national orbital constellation.
In the early 2000s, ISS-Reshetnev Company started a new project in the field of satellite telecommunications – the Express-AM program. A combined total of seven satellites of this series have been designed and produced by the company to date. At the same time ISS-Reshetnev Company began deploying a LEO personal communications system GONETS-D1M based on Gonets-M satellites. Apart from communications and data transmission services, the system is used to track objects on the ground, support environment and scientific monitoring.
In the beginning of the 21st century the company proceeded with developing data-relay satellites. ISS-Reshetnev started a new multifunctional space-based data-relay satellite system Loutch. It is based on three data-relay satellites Loutch-5A, Loutch-5B and Loutch-5V and has the primary mission goal of providing communications between LEO satellites and launch vehicles, upper stages etc., as well as the Russian segment of the International Space Station. This project holds special importance to ISS-Reshetnev, as it was the first time the company was responsible not only for the development and manufacture of the satellites’ service modules, but for their on-board command and control subsystem as well.
The replenishment and modernization of the Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS was a matter of highest priority for ISS-Reshetnev and for the whole country during the decade. With the economic crisis of the 1990s, the system’s constellation rapidly degraded and fell into disrepair. In the early 2000s ISS-Reshetnev Company committed to restoring the system and set further efforts to speed up the manufacture of modernized Glonass-M navigation satellites and the development of a next-generation Glonass-K series.
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
