Yamal 202


Yamal 202 is a geostationary communications satellite operated by Gazkom and built by RSC Energia. It was, along with Yamal 201 the second dual launch of the Yamal program and the second iteration of the USP Bus. It is a satellite with 4,080W of power on an unpressurized bus. It have eight SPT-70 electric thrusters by OKB Fakel for station keeping. Its payload is 18 C band transponders supplied by Space Systems Loral.

History

During 1997, even before the launch of their first satellites, Gazkom was planning the second generation. At that time they planned a 24 satellites of the second generation. This extremely aggressive plan was scaled back by 2001 with a plan to launch four 200 series satellites. The first two, Yamal 201 and Yamal 202 would be launched by 2001 and the second pair, Yamal 203 and Yamal 204 by 2004. Yamal 201 and Yamal 203 would be identical and be positioned at the 90°E slot and Yamal 202 and Yamal 204 would also be twins and be positioned at the 49°E slot.
Yamal 202 was launched along Yamal 201 November 24, 2003 at 16:2 UTC from Baikonur Site 81/23 by a Proton-K/Blok-DM-2M directly to GEO. The launch and satellite deployment was successful and Yamal 201 was commissioned into service. As of July 22, 2016 it is still in service and at 12 years and 8 months it has surpassed its design life of 12.5 years.
In 2019, on the replacement satellite "Yamal-202" launched satellite "Yamal-601".
July 19, 2019 all the networks working on the satellite "Yamal-202", have been transferred into the satellite "Yamal-601".
On September 16, 2019, at the IBC-2019 convention in Amsterdam, the transfer of the Yamal-202 satellite to the orbital position 163.5° East longitude was announced to serve the Pacific region.
At the end of November 2019, the movement of the Yamal-202 satellite to the orbital position 163.5° East longitude was successfully completed. After 16 years of working in 49°E position, in 2019 the satellite was transferred to a new orbital position of 163.5°E.