International   

Global navigation system

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia has launched three more satellites to join its indigenous global navigation system Glonass. Three 3,000-pound satellites were placed in orbit by a Proton rocket, which took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan shortly before midnight on Monday. The launch boosts the Glonass constellation to 17 satellites, just one short of the minimum needed to cover the entire territory of Russia. In the next three years, Russia will launch six new communication satellites per year, so as to fully deploy Glonass, the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), by the end of 2009, Russian Space Agency Roskosmos head Anatoly Perminov said on Tuesday. Under a 2004 agreement, India joined the Glonass project. The two countries agreed to jointly develop the next generation of satellites, Glonass-K, and jointly use the system for civilian and military purposes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Raging flames keep rescuers away from Lagos blast site
Colombo takes action for separate administration in two provinces
Jordanian vessel captain says Sea Tigers seized ship
Niyazov successor nominated
People to advise U.K. Government
Pakistan to fence, mine border with Afghanistan
Castro recovering: doctor
Curfew in Nepal town
Global navigation system
Driven to extinction by humans
Christmas message for Osama
Drug gang nabbed
Islamists kill three Thais
`Treasures of ancient India' exhibition opens in Beijing
Peace process, a success of foreign policy in 2006: Pakistan

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu