OREANDA-NEWS. ISS-Reshetnev Company has kicked off final electrical testing of the Express-AM5 satellite.

During these integrated electrical tests, ISS-Reshetnev team is to verify that all the satellite's subsystems are performing well, make sure that the spacecraft's communication link with ground control stations is working as intended and also deploy the Ku-band steerable antenna.

A set of electrical tests are to be conducted in the presence of the customer representatives from the Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC).

Testing of the spacecraft is to run till the end of October. Once having completed verification, ISS-Reshetnev technicians will start preparing the Express-AM5 satellite for shipping to the Baikonur cosmodrome. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch on December 26, 2013.

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The Express-AM5 telecommunications spacecraft is being built by Academician M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems around its heavy-class Express-2000 platform. The satellite is designed to provide mobile presidential and governmental communications, digital television and radio broadcasting, multimedia (telephony, videoconferencing, data transmission, access to the internet) as well as VSAT services.