In the event of the loss of the Angosat-1 telecommunications satellite, its developer, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, will be obliged to make Angola a new apparatus without the financing of the customer. The corresponding item is recorded in a contract signed by Rosoboronexport and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology of Angola in 2008. However, satellite insurance covers the costs of creating a new one, so RSC Energia is not expected to incur financial losses.

The fact that Angosat-1, launched into orbit at the end of 2017, will be transferred to "safe mode" because of problems with the power distribution unit, "Kommersant" reported on January 16. As the industry sources confirmed yesterday, in February the satellite will leave the radiovisibility zone and will not be in it until mid-April. Only then the specialists of "Energy" will try to resume the cycle of its flight-design tests. Until then, the device will drift in orbit without communication with the Earth. A number of industry top managers are convinced that the chances of saving the device are not great. Member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after Tsiolkovsky Alexander Zheleznyakov believes that it is impossible to name the problems in the power distribution unit "a small difficulty". "If for a month it was not possible to establish a connection with the device, then this is really a big problem," says the expert. "Theoretically, it can be eliminated purely by specialists, for this the specialists will need to rework a set of special teams, but how this will happen in practice is a big question."

The contract for the creation and launch of the first broadcasting satellite Russia and Angola concluded in 2008: then the signatures on the document were put by representatives of Rosoboronexport and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies of the Republic. The contractor was determined "Energy", which at that time was led by Vitaly Lopota (now it is headed by Vladimir Solntsev). In 2011, Vnesheconombank, VTB Bank and Roseximbank provided loans to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Angola for a total of about $ 280 million for a period of up to 13 years. The works themselves started in 2012: in addition to the funds for the creation of Angosat-1, the cost of the contract included renting the point of standing of the apparatus, as well as the creation of control systems for its flights in Luanda and the Queen. The launch took place from the Baikonur cosmodrome only on December 26, 2017.

The failure with the first satellite did not destroy the chances of continuing cooperation. As Kommersant's source in the space industry said yesterday, the contract indicated the point at which Angola could use the option for technical reasons and order a similar device (conditional Angosat-2) from Russia. Angosat-1 was insured in SOGAZ and VTB Insurance companies for $ 121 million in the proportion of 50 to 50. "In principle, this amount sufficiently covers the cost of creating" Energia "Angosat-2, - said the top manager of one of the enterprises "Angola is very likely to agree to such a maneuver: the infrastructure for operating the Luanda facility has already been prepared, it makes no sense to order the device somewhere on the side, it is economically unprofitable."

In RSC Energia and Rosoboronexport, from the comments of Kommersant yesterday, they abstained.