Space firm Informkosmos has successfully launched the first of a new generation of satellites that it hopes will gain Russia a greater share of the world telecommunications market, the company's director announced Tuesday.


The new satellite, called the Express, is designed to ultimately replace the Soviet-era Gorizont satellites that now make up Russia's space communications network, and is expected to bring its makers millions of dollars in new revenues.


"We plan to replace all 10 Gorizonts now in orbit by the end of 1997," Igor Zirlin, director of Informkosmos, told a news conference. "This will give us the opportunity to increase significantly the number of telecommunications channels and compete with Western companies."


Communications Minister Vladimir Bulgak has said that Russia could lease as much as 19 percent of available channels to foreign companies once the new network is in place. Each channel -- of which the Express has 14, twice the capacity of the Gorizont -- can be leased for about $1 million a year.


Informkosmos, a joint-stock company set up by a group of Russian design and construction enterprises to pursue commercial projects, also plans to sell the satellites themselves to foreign firms.


"Express has twice as many communication channels in comparison with old satellites and it is more stable in orbit. It will be one of the few attractive Russian high-tech exports," said Zirlin.


U.S.-based consortium Rimsat, for example, plans to use some of the Express satellites in a new low-cost Asia-Pacific communications network. According to Zirlin, the total cost of putting one Express satellite in orbit is about half that of its foreign competitors.


The flip side of the satellites' low price is their shorter lifespan in orbit -- a maximum of seven years, compared to about 12 years for a Telstar 402 satellite made by U.S. firm Martin Marietta.


"It is not a secret that some of our equipment is worse," said Yury Myalin, deputy chief of the Russian Space Agency.


"We are still unable to buy anything from the old COCOM list because of the old ban on sale of high technologies to the Soviet Union. Officially the ban is lifted but in fact it is still in effect, so we have to make everything ourselves.


"But, anyway, there is already a queue to use our satellites," he added.


Zirlin said that although the development of a telecommunications network is part of the Russian federal space program, Informkosmos had found Russian and foreign investors to finance the first launch, which took place earlier this month. He refused, however, to name the investors.


Informkosmos was set up several years ago by Russian aerospace firms NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, NII Kosmicheskogo Priborostroyeniye, NII Radio, and GP Kosmicheskaya Svyaz.