GLONASS

The Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) announced the successful launch of three new GLONASS-M satellites on Friday 26th October. The satellites were fired into orbit atop a Proton booster from Baikonur. This launch represents the first tangible developments from the government’s 9.88 billion rubles (£190 million) investment in the system in 2007 and puts the Russians on track to have the constellation fully operable again by 2009. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) is based on a constellation of active satellites which continuously transmit coded signals in two frequency bands, which can be received by users anywhere on the Earth's surface to identify their position and velocity in real time based on ranging measurements. The system is a counterpart to the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) and both systems share the same principles in the data transmission and positioning methods. GLONASS is managed for the Russian Federation Government by the Russian Space Forces and the system is operated by the Coordination Scientific Information Center (KNITs) of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The operational space segment of GLONASS consists of 21 satellites in 3 orbital planes, with 3 on-orbit spares. The three orbital planes are separated 120 degrees, and the satellites within the same orbit plane by 45 degrees. Each satellite operates in circular 19,100 km orbits at an inclination angle of 64.8 degrees and each satellite completes an orbit in approximately 11 hours 15 minutes. The ground control segment of GLONASS is entirely located within former Soviet Union territory. The Ground Control Center and Time Standards is located in Moscow and the telemetry and tracking stations are in St. Petersburg, Ternopol, Eniseisk, Komsomolsk-na-Amure. The first GLONASS satellites were launched into orbit in 1982. Two Etalon geodetic satellites were also flown in the 19,100 km GLONASS orbit to fully characterize the gravitational field at the planned altitude and inclination. The original plans called for a complete operational system by 1991, but the deployment of the full constellation of satellites was not completed until late 1995 / early 1996. GLONASS was officially declared operational on September 24, 1993 by a decree of the President of the Russian Federation.

More information:

http://satellitenavigation.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/new-glonass-launch-first-signs-of-increased-investment/

http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/constellations/glonass_consum.shtml

http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/russia/nav/glonass.htm