The history of GLONASS in Russia.
The Russian global satellite positioning system, which is an analogue of the American GPS system — one of the global positioning systems.
The global navigation system is designed to provide the ability to determine the coordinates of moving and stationary objects on the Earth's surface.
Where did the GLONASS era begin?
The GLONASS era
In this article, we are interested in the history of the development of the domestic satellite system itself.
The first launch of GLONASS satellites took place in the Soviet Union on October 12, 1982.
Only 11 years later, on September 24, 1993, the system was officially accepted into operation with an orbital group of 12 satellites.
In the process of establishing the standard number of satellites, financial obstacles arose, which negatively affected the advancement of the system.
Many tend to find the reasons for the decline of the system in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The era of GLONASS was revived by 2001, when, in August, the federal target program «Global Navigation System» was adopted in Russia.
According to this program, full coverage of the territory of Russia was planned by 2008. Full-scale deployment of the program was planned for 2010.
An important date in the history of GLONASS was the meeting of the GLONASS Design Council at the end of March 2008.
At this meeting, the system implementation plan was adjusted.
At the council of chief designers of GLONASS, the system deployment plan was adjusted with the goal of having the global navigation system operating on Russian territory by at least December 31, 2008.
Previous plans called for the launch of two triplets of new GLONASS-M satellites into orbit in September and December 2008; however, in March 2008, the production schedule for the satellites and rockets was revised to put all satellites into operation by the end of the year.
The launches were expected to take place two months earlier and the system would be operational by the end of the year.
The plans were implemented on time. On January 29, 2009, it was announced that Sochi would be the first city to be equipped with a mass GLONASS-based public transport satellite monitoring system.
In the same year, an agreement was concluded between Ukraine and Russia on joint work to create satellite navigation to serve consumers in the territory of both countries.
On December 15, 2009, the head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, announced that the deployment of GLONASS would be completed by the end of 2010.
And with the transition to GLONASS-K satellites, the accuracy of the GLONASS system will become comparable to the accuracy of the American navigation system NAVSTAR GPS.
The developer of satellites in Russia is JSC ISS named after M.F. Reshetneva.
The frequency of GLONASS signals has not yet been fully determined.
It is known that the new GLONASS signals are based on the signals introduced in the modernized GPS: the signal in the L3 range is located next to the M-code signal, and the signals in the L1 and L5 ranges are located at the frequencies of the «New Civilian L1» (L1C) and «Safety of Life» (L5) signals and are next to similar signals of the Galileo and Compass systems.
There are currently 23 satellites in orbit, 21 of which are operational and used for their intended purpose, and 2 are in reserve.
The number of satellites is planned to be increased so that the system can function as fully and effectively as possible.
Another launch of GLONASS satellites is expected in the near future.
The GLONASS system is used by more than half of all automobile vehicles in Russia, about 20% of aircraft, and 30% of sea and river vessels.