MOSCOW (AP) – A top Russian official said Wednesday the country’s satellite navigation system will become fully operational later this year, even though it currently has less than half of the required satellites in working condition, Russian news agencies reported.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said he had no doubts that Russia’s Federal Space Agency would “fulfill its obligations and put 18 GLONASS satellites in orbit by the year’s end,” the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies reported.
GLONASS, the acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System, was developed during the Soviet times as a response to the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS.
The system originally had 24 satellites, but their number had dwindled after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Thanks to Russia’s booming oil revenues, the government has earmarked funds to revive the system to its full strength and offer it to global consumers.
Ivanov said earlier that at least 18 satellites were necessary to provide navigation services over the entire Russian territory. He said that the system would be available worldwide by the end of 2009, for which it would need to have 24 satellites.
There are 19 GLONASS satellites currently in orbit, but only eight are currently in working condition, according to a statement posted on the Mission Control’s site. Another three satellites launched in December are about to enter service, it said.
Russia plans to launch another six GLONASS satellites later this year, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The European Union is also working on its own $4.8 billion satellite navigation system. Galileo was supposed to be launched and operational in orbit by 2011, beaming radio signals to Earth so users could pinpoint their locations.
But only one satellite has been launched so far, and the second missed a late 2006 launch date because it short-circuited in final testing. It is scheduled up later this year.
