[IGSMAIL-3628]: GLONASS Launch

[Casswell, Rebecca]

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IGS Electronic Mail      03 Dec 10:09:55 PST 2001      Message Number 3628
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Author: Rebecca Casswell, NAVCEN (via Ruth Neilan)

 From Spaceflight Now:

Russian Proton rocket launches satellite trio
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: December 1, 2001
A powerful Proton-K rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Saturday carrying three replacement spacecraft for Russia's Global
Navigation Satellite System.
Liftoff of the sixth Proton flight of 2001 occurred at 1804 GMT (1:04 p.m.
EST), beginning a four-hour mission to deliver the Uragan satellites into
orbit.
Known as GLONASS for short, the navigation system uses satellites to
transmit navigation radio signals to military and civilian users.
"GLONASS was set up on the initiative of the Russian Defense Ministry in
September 1993," a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency Rosaviakosmos
said. "It allows to locate objects on the Earth's and sea surface with an
accuracy of one meter."
The positioning information aids air and sea traffic management,
cartography, ground transport monitoring and search and rescue operations.
The network is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System.

Saturday's launch carried two standard Uragan spacecraft and one Uragan-M,
which is a next-generation satellite design that promises a longer in-orbit
lifespan of 50 to 100 percent. Its instruments are also more powerful and
have higher accuracies.
Russian officials say the Uragan-M spacecraft will replace older Uragan
satellites in the future, allowing for an improved and more precise
navigation system.
GLONASS is supposed to feature 24 orbiting satellites divided into three
orbital planes in circular orbits 19,100 kilometers high with an inclination
of 64.8 degrees to provide global coverage. However, Russia's economic
troubles meant replacement satellites couldn't be launched as needed in the
1990s. The spacecraft have just three-year service lives.
At present, there are only six operational satellites in the orbiting fleet,
not counting the three launched Saturday. Three spacecraft from the December
1998 launch are positioned in the constellation's Plane 1, and three
satellites launched in October 2000 are flying in Plane 3. The new
satellites are scheduled to be placed into operation in Plane 2.
The first GLONASS launch occurred in 1982.