It was constructed by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki (ISS Reshetnev) and Alcatel Space and is based on the MSS-2500-GSO satellite bus.
The satellite was launched at Baikonur Cosmodrome at Site 200/39 on 27 October 1999, at 16:16:00 UTC.
The launch was made by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, and a Proton-K / DM-2 launch vehicle was used.
[1] It is part of the Ekspress satellite constellation.
The Russian Ekspress-A1 communications satellite was launched in October 1999 but the Proton-K launch vehicle failed early in flight, during second stage burn.