The first geostationary satellite of Ekran series for Direct-to-Home television launched

On October 26, 1976 the first satellite of Ekran series for direct-to-home television was placed into the orbit. It allowed to receive the television and radio programs the habitants of complicated climate and geography regions, the workers building the Baikal Amur Main, oil industry workers and gasmen of Siberia and the ships of the Northern sea way.

By the early 1970s the Soviet Union used a system of satellite broadcasting, "Orbit", the space segment of which served satellites "Molniya". This network covered a fifth of the country’s territory, and approx. 80% of the population. However, the large sparsely populated regions remained outside the scope of "Orbits". So, the Research and Production Association of Applied Mechanics (NPO PM) soon started to develop a new satellite television - "Ekran". First and foremost there was a need to create a satellite with a higher capacity of transmitting the signal, which raised the problem for developers to supply the apparatus with a necessary amount of energy. With that end in view there were developed principally new system of solar panels, thermal control system and control system, and was completely worked out a new cycle of the test systems.

Placing the Ekran satellite for direct-to-home television into the orbit marked the new stage in the development of satellite communication of the USSR. The area of coverage of the satellite was about 9 million square km that is 40% of the territory of the USSR. Ekran characteristics (transmitter’s power 300 Wt, the power applied to the antenna – 200 Wt) allowed to receive the programs on respectively small and cheap receiving stations that could be afforded by little villages as well as by individual users. Moreover, in order to reduce the cost of land stations the working range of 0.62-0.79 GHz was chosen combined with the range of the land broadcasting. The systems of satellite telecasting began to appear in small villages. The receiving stations were installed on the ships navigating on the Northern sea way.

The first Ekrans were equipped with one transponder and broadcasted the first channel of the Central television.

In 1981 the science and production association of the applied mechanics that created the Ekran system of direct-to-home television was awarded with the Order of Red Banner of Labor. The expert group was awarded with Lenin and State prize of the USSR in the field of science and technology. The large group of the science and production association employees was decorated with orders and medals.

Lit.: Колюбакин В. Спутник Экран-М // Журнал Теле-Спутник. 2000. Окт. № 10 (60).