Bear Lakes Satellite Communications Center
Bear Lakes history
“Satellite Communications Station” in Bear Lakes was built and taken into operation in 1967. On 25October 1967, the first test communication session via the satellite Molniya-1 was carried out and on 4 November 1967, for the first time in the Soviet Union a TV bridge between the cities of Moscow and Vladivistok was organized.
The 4 November 1967 is being considered as the official day of establishing the “Communications Center Station” (CCS) of the SU Ministry of Communications in Bear Lakes and, consequently, the day of creation of the Russian Satellite Communications Company.
In 1974, CCS in Bear Lakes became a part of the newly set enterprise “Satellite Communications Center”, the main task of which was developing the satellite communications in the country for the sake of the National economy.
In 1970-s the CCS in Bear Lakes continued to develop: continuous TV broadcasting and telephony onto the receiving station network Orbita in Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East was established, work within the international organization of space communications Intersputnik was organized, which was aimed at TV program exchange with the socialist countries and international telephony.
In 1973, a one-storey technical building and 12 m THA-57 antenna were built that later on became the basis of the up-to-date SCC Bear Lakes.
In 1974, the satellite line of the governmental communications Moscow -Washington was established via the satellites Molniya and Intelsat.
In 1979, the SCC was reorganized into the Federal radio broadcasting and radio communications center No.9 and the Satellite Communications Station was reorganized into the satellite communications department Orbita-1.
From 1978 till 1987, the mobile satellite communications station Mars-1 transmitted telemetric information and TV bridges with participation of cosmonauts through the satellite communications channels to the Satellite Control Center (the city of Korolev). The specialists of the satellite communications department Orbita-1 provided the Mars-1 operation at Baikonur.
From 1979 till 1983, a team of specialists of the satellite communications department Orbita-1 secured the communications in Afghanistan. The visit of the Head of the State Leonid Brezhnev in India in 1980 was transmitted by the satellite communications department Orbita-1 specialists with the help of the transportable satellite communications station Mars-2.
In 1980-s, the specialists of the satellite communications department Orbita-1 helped in the context of the program of the Ministry of communications the friendly countries, participating in Intersputnik, to install, master and operate the satellite communications stations (Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Bulgaria).
The specialists of the department participated as well in construction of receiving stations in the satellite TV broadcasting systems Moskva and Ekran in Russian representation offices abroad.
In 1980, the satellite communications department Orbita-1 took active part in transmitting reports from the Olympic games 1980 in Moscow to different parts of the world (to this effect the department technical facilities were upgraded). Since that time the enterprise became a powerful teleport, enabling establishment of the satellite communications channels with stations worldwide.
In 1982 and 1986, the specialists from the satellite communications department Orbita-1 participated in reporting from the Winter Sports Contents of the SU peoples.
In 1995 the satellite communications department Orbita-1 got its modern name as the Satellite Communications Center Bear Lakes (SCC), and in 1998, the SCC successfully received all TV&Radio transmissions from the Olympic Games in Australia.
In 1990-s, new types of equipment to transfer the satellite channels to digital technologies were actively tested.
In 2003, RSCC delivered to SCC Bear Lakes the mobile telemedicine laboratory developed and manufactured to fight infection diseases and equipped with the most up-to-date medical and navigations devices, satellite communications and autonomous life support systems. The laboratory allows the medical assistance to be provided to all needy at any point of Russia and the near abroad.
In the context of the State Program for conversing the federal TV programs to digital methods of delivery and distribution, since November 2003 SCC Bear Lakes started broadcasting TV&Radio programs in digital format to zones M and G via Express-AM1 satellite (40 East). The work associated with transferring the TV&Radio broadcasting into digital format on the territory of the Russian Federation continued till 2006.
In 2006, the SCC Bear Lakes specialists tested and commissioned, for the first time in the country, the conditional access system Rockript. In the same year, test broadcasting of TV programs in MPEG-4 standard started.
In 2009, the construction of the backup TV&Radio compression program center was finished.
In May 2009, the SCC’ specialists provided broadcasting of the international song contest Eurovision-2009 in HD standard.
In October 2009, the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev visited SCC Bear Lakes.
