MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's national satellite operator has signed a contract with the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center to build the first Russian high-power spacecraft, the operator said on Monday.

The Express-AM4 will be based on Astrium's proven Eurostar E3000 satellite platform with a 14kW payload power

The operator said the satellite equipment would be supplied by the European company EADS Astrium.

The satellite is to be delivered in the second half of 2010.

The Eurostar E3000 is flight-qualified and has been used to build satellites for leading international operators of fixed and mobile satellite communications, such as Inmarsat-4F1 and 4F2, Hot Bird 8, Eutelsat W3A, Intelsat 10-02 and many others.

The Express-AM4 satellite will be equipped with 63 transponders operating in C-, Ku-, Ka and L-bands. The craft's ten antennas will provide high performance coverage over the Russian Federation and CIS countries.

The steerable antennas can be used to provide communication to any point within the satellite's visibility. The guaranteed active orbital life of Express-AM4 will be 15 years.

The Express-AM4 is to be placed in Russia's key orbital position of 80E.