Russia Launches Three GLONASS Satellites - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

Russia Launches Three GLONASS Satellites

Russia got its GNSS program back on track on December 14 with the launch of three modernized GLONASS-M satellites — resuming a schedule interrupted by problems with a navigation payload on an in-orbit spacecraft.

Russia got its GNSS program back on track on December 14 with the launch of three modernized GLONASS-M satellites — resuming a schedule interrupted by problems with a navigation payload on an in-orbit spacecraft.

A Proton launcher took the trio of satellites into orbit at 1038 GMT (5:38 a.m. EST) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan.

The launch brings the total number of GLONASS satellites in orbit to 22 — although one of these is in the process of being decommissioned and two others are currently off-line for maintenance, including GLONASS #726 in which the signal generator problem was discovered. Another launch is expected in February 2010.

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