The Yamal-401satellite will replace Gazprom’s Yamal-201 and Yamal-601 will replace the Yamal-202 respectively, joining the Yamal-300K spacecraft that was launched last year.

   The Yamal-402 telecommunications satellite also launched in December of last year, but failed to reach its intended orbit after a failure of a pump bearing occurred during launch. Thales Alenia Space, which built the satellite for Russia’s Gazprom Space Systems, later lifted the satellite into its intended orbit using its onboard engines. However, the service life of the satellite will now be reduced from 15 to 11 years, due to emergency use of some of its fuel reserves.