This model of the Luch-5B relay satellite was transferred to the museum by Information Satellite Systems named after M.F. Reshetnev JSC in 2017, together with other exhibits, specially to mark the opening of the Children’s Space Center in Kirov.

Luch-5B is a Russian telecommunications relay satellite which facilitates communications between satellites, spacecraft, space stations, launch vehicles and launch vehicles operating in orbit at heights of up to 2000 km above the Earth. Luch-5 satellites enable the Flight Control Center in Korolyov to communicate with the Russian section of the International Space Station. The spacecraft was developed by Information Satellite Systems named after M.F. Reshetnev JSC, in Zheleznogorsk.

At the beginning of the Space Age one of the greatest challenges was to maintain communications with the spacecrafts and the crews of spacecrafts and stations and control over the flight parameters. The spacecrafts were in radio silence zone (“radio shadow “) for a considerable time, i.e. beyond the coverage of ground telemetry stations. (GTSs). This problem has been partially resolved by mounting space telecommunications apparatus on ocean ships. However, a better solution was retransmitting (establishing a link between two radio transmitters that are distant from each other) using satellites orbiting around the Earth.

In 1985, the first of four satellites of the Altair (Luch) series was launched. In the 1990s, they were replaced by the Helios (Luch-2) satellites. Between 2011 and 2014, three satellites Luch-5A, Luch-5B and Luch 5-C were launched, that made the basis of the Luch Multifunctional Space Relay System (MSRS). In 2015, Roscosmos announced the beginning of the pilot operation of the system.

The satellites are in geostationary orbit, at a height of about 36 000 kilometers above the equator. At this position the satellite”s angular speed is the same as that of the Earth”s rotation, and as a result the satellite remains “fixed” above a specific point on the planet’s surface.

Luch 5-B is based on the Express-1000AM light non-hermetic satellite platform. It was launched on November 3, 2012. The satellite has an guaranteed active service life of 10 years.