American-Russian efforts managed to find the satellite in a non-designed orbit

The newest Russian communications satellite Express-AM4, launched on the night of August 18-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) and then lost, was found in an off-design orbit. The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the EADS Astrium company are making attempts to establish communication with the device in order to turn on its on-board systems.

Space Control System, Space Force, and North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) assets established the satellite's orbital parameters. Thus, the inclination of the spacecraft is 51 and 23 degrees, the apogee is 20,294 km, the perigee is 995 km, and the orbital period is 368 minutes 39 seconds. As reported in Roscosmos, working groups do not stop trying to establish communication with the spacecraft.

Let us remind you that the Proton-M launch vehicle with the Briz-M upper stage and the satellite took off at about 1:25 Moscow time. The first four starts of the main engine went as expected. However, subsequently problems began with the transmission of telemetric information from the booster to Earth. Subsequently, the fifth activation occurred, after which the satellite separated from the upper stage. According to Kommersant's information, Russia sent an official request to NORAD asking for help in finding a satellite (the United States did not confirm this on August 21).

Initially, Russian tracking stations did not see the Express-AM4 satellite in its intended orbit. American tracking systems also did not see the satellite. However, on the night of August 19-20, the NORAD system still detected the satellite, which was confirmed today by Roscosmos. Since the commission is working to determine the causes of the incident, the official reason is not reported. However, as stated in the official statement of Roscosmos, the cause of the incident is tentatively considered to be an error in the control system of the upper stage ( see Kommersant of August 19 ).

Ivan Safronov Jr.

"Express-AM4" flew away to the wrong place