Russia gave a Christmas gift to the GNSS world with its launch of three GLONASS satellites, including two modernized GLONASS-M spacecraft, on December 25 2005.
Russia gave a Christmas gift to the GNSS world with its launch of three GLONASS satellites, including two modernized GLONASS-M spacecraft, on December 25 2005.
The spacecraft (Cosmos 798, 713, and 714) will be placed into slots 19, 24, and 23, respectively, of orbital plane 3. Cosmos 793, currently on orbit, will be moved from slot 23 into slot 20.
The launch brings the number of operational GLONASS satellites to 16 and fills out the first and third orbital planes. The second orbital plane remains without satellites.
Four GLONASS-M are now in place with the capability of broadcasting a second civil signal in the L2 band. See more details about recent developments and plans for the GLONASS system in the article, “GLONASS: The Once and Future GNSS” In the January-February 2006 Inside GNSS magazine.
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