Energia UKP - Energia Universal Communications Platform, applicable to several heavy spacecraft designs proposed by RKK Energia for launch using the Energia launch vehicle. Credit: via Steven S. Pietrobon. 6,850 bytes. 257 x 258 pixels.

Lox/LH2 upper stages launched by Energia would put 21 tonne communications satellites into geosynchronous orbit. 4 to 6 such satellites would make up a global informaton system, solving congestion problems in geosynchronous orbit. It was felt that only heavy platforms in an integrated sytem could operate high-volume optical inter-satellite data links.

• 21 - Semenov, Yuri P Editor, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya 'Energia' imeni S P Koroleva, Moscow, Russia, 1996.