MOSCOW: Russia has launched three satellites Monday, expanding its global navigation satellite system, Glonass. The three 3000-pound satellites were sent into orbit using a Proton rocket, according to a Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) spokesperson, quoted by Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.
Roscosmos said the Proton rocket carrying the three modernized Glonass-M satellites blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan and the lift off was right on target and the rocket reached the exact position about 12,000 miles over the earth. The satellites were put into orbit early Tuesday.
Glonass, which is a Russian version of the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the U.S., is intended for both military and civilian purposes. The system can also be used in geological prospecting.
Head of Roscosmos Anatoly Perminov had stated earlier Russia is in negotiations with the United States and the European Space Agency to evolve an agreement for the use of Glonass jointly with GPS and Galileo satellite navigation systems.
At present, Glonass has 11 operational spacecraft. The three will be added to this. Roscosmos plans to have 18 satellites in orbit by late 2007 or early 2008. The full compliment of 24 satellites will be reached by 2009, Perminov said.
There are two versions of Glonass now is orbit -- Glonass and an updated Glonass-M, the latter having a longer life span of seven years. It is also equipped with updated antenna feeder systems and an additional navigation frequency for civilian users. The next updated version, Glonass-K, is based on a non-pressurized platform, standardized to the specifications of the previous models' platform, Express-1000.
Glonass-M satellites have a second civilian navigation channel and increased accuracy for both military and private users. Once commissioned, they will provide horizontal and vertical positioning data within about 200 feet to worldwide users, according to Roscosmos.
