[IGSMAIL-5063]: GLONASS News and Plans

[Slater, James A.]

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IGS Electronic Mail      13 Dec 15:39:38 PST 2004      Message Number 5063
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Author: Jim Slater

The following information is a summary of some of Russia's plans for the
GLONASS constellation, as described at a meeting in Washington, DC last
week, including some possible cooperative efforts between the Russian
Aerospace Agency and the IGS.

	*	A new launch of 3 satellites is scheduled for 26 December.
One of these will be a GLONASS-M and the other two will be the older model
satellite.  GLONASS satellite numbers 712, 796 and 797 will be placed into
slots 1, 7 and 8 of plane 1 of the constellation.  This will bring the total
number of GLONASS satellites in orbit to 14.  Eleven (11) satellites are now
operational, including the first GLONASS-M (launched in December 2003) that
has been set healthy just recently.
	*	The Russian Aerospace Agency has the approval of the Russian
government to continue a long-term plan for the period 2002-2011, during
which time it plans to reconstitute a GLONASS constellation of 24
satellites.  Russia plans to have 18 operational satellites by the end of
2007 and 24 operational satellites by the end of 2010.
	*	The GLONASS-M satellites have two civil signals and have an
expected life of 7 years.  In addition to the one currently in orbit and the
one scheduled for launch on 26 December, seven more have been ordered for
production.
	*	GLONASS-K will be the future generation GLONASS satellite
and will have a third civil signal.  It will also weigh much less than the
GLONASS-M (800 kg versus 1,400 kg).  GLONASS-K will transmit integrity
information and will support search and rescue operations.
	*	Russia is modernizing its national geodetic network to be
compatible with the ITRF.  It has updated the coordinates of the fundamental
geodetic control network throughout Russia and in addition has defined a
high precision geodetic network tied to the ITRF.
	*	There are still differences between the Russian "PE-90"
geodetic reference system that is used to define geodetic reference station
coordinates, the GLONASS monitor station coordinates, and the "PZ-90"
broadcast navigation message.
	*	Russia has recently signed an agreement with India, which
includes potential cooperative efforts regarding GLONASS.
	*	Russia has built a combined GPS-GLONASS receiver.
	*	The Russian Aerospace Agency is now generating precise
orbits for the GLONASS satellites from Russian tracking data and from the
IGS's network data.  It is considering contributing these precise orbits to
the IGS.  Furthermore, the Agency is considering co-locating GPS-GLONASS
receivers at IGS stations. 


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Jim Slater     301-227-4549     Fax: 301-227-2837     E-mail:
slaterj at nga.mil
NGA, PFC, MSD-56, 4600 Sangamore Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816-5003, U.S.A.
"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a
little way past them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke