LE BOURGET (France), June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Information Satellite Systems (ISS) will sign a memorandum of cooperation on Monday on producing satellites with France-based Thales Alenia Space (TAS) at the Paris Air Show, a Russian official said.
The head of the Russian delegation, Alexander Fomin, first deputy director of the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation, said the memorandum will deal with a project to build spacecraft of the Express AM5 and AM6 series.
ISS and TAS had signed a cooperation memorandum in April last year. The agreements dealt, in particular, with developing and supplying telecommunications satellite equipment enabling the use of Russian devices on TAS commsats.
"Military-technical cooperation with Thales is developing successfully. The memorandum to be signed on the first day of the exhibition work in Le Bourget is an example of this," Fomin said.
Express AM5 and Express AM6 are planned to be orbited in 2012. They are designed to provide a wide range of communications and broadcasting services, including digital TV and radio broadcasting, data transmission and Internet access, multimedia services, telephony and mobile communications. The satellites should function normally for at least 15 years.
