[IGSMAIL-5533]: New GLONASS Satellites Launched in December and Changes in Russia n Restrictions on Geographical Coordinates

[Slater, James A.]

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IGS Electronic Mail      12 Jan 09:49:54 PST 2007      Message Number 5533
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Author: Jim Slater

This is some news of interest to the IGS community regarding GLONASS.

Three modernized GLONASS-M satellites were successfully launched on 25
December 2006.  These satellites have been placed in orbit plane 2 in slots
10, 14 and 15 and are identified as GLONASS numbers 715, 716 and 717,
respectively.  Constellation status may be found at the recently revised
GLONASS website: www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru <www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru> .

Effective 1 January 2007, the Russian Ministry of Defense has abolished
restrictions that had been in place in Russia limiting the accuracy of
geographic coordinates (previously 30 m) derived from GLONASS or other
sources. This will allow Russians to exploit GLONASS and other geospatial
resources to any level of resolution, especially for commercial development.


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James A. Slater     Tel: 703-735-2655     Fax: 703-735-2597
E-mail: slaterj at nga.mil
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Basic and Applied Research Office (IB), Mail Stop P-126
12310 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20191-3449