Sputnik vs Putin. How the space Internet will be structured and whether the Kremlin will be able to censor it. Glonass lost three satellites in a month. complete coverage of the planet is impossible How did you find out in time that you need to change the trajectory

In 2020, the Large Synoptic Telescope (LSST) will open in Chile, a flagship observatory that will be able to take unprecedentedly clear images of the night sky and search for asteroids that are potentially dangerous to the Earth. The project took five years to build and costs $1.3 billion - but it may be rendered virtually useless due to light pollution from several thousand Internet distribution satellites from SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb and other companies. If there are currently about 5 thousand devices in low-Earth orbit, then with the launch of satellites from the three listed companies their number will increase to 52 thousand - that is, more than 10 times. This will make astronomical observations almost impossible, because Musk's communications satellites will illuminate the entire night sky. Hi-tech tells what astronomers think about launching so many satellites (spoiler - they are very unhappy), how companies are trying to find solutions for them mutual language and which types of observations will be hit hardest by light pollution from the devices.

What are these projects - SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb?

In 2015, the head of the company, Elon Musk, announced plans to launch a global project to distribute satellite internet Starlink. In May 2019, the company launched 60 satellites into orbit - they became the first of a group of almost 12 thousand devices that will be located in low-Earth orbit.

Launch of Starlink satellites

The satellites will occupy altitudes from 349 to 1,190 km, and the Internet distributed from them will work 40 times faster than any operator on Earth.

In October, SpaceX received permission from the International Telecommunication Union and the US Federal Communications Commission to launch another 30 thousand satellites - thus, the total number of devices planned for launch increased to 42 thousand. By the end of 2019 alone, Starlink plans to launch 720 satellites into orbit.

SpaceX satellites

Each satellite weighs approximately 225 kg and is powered by a solar panel. The devices will communicate with each other via optical and radio communications, and will be controlled through a user terminal on Earth. The devices are equipped with a collision avoidance system, and after completing their service life they will almost completely burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

OneWeb also plans to launch satellites into orbit to distribute the Internet - according to the company's plans, 700 devices will be in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 800 to 950 km above the Earth's surface. The satellites were developed by Airbus - each of them weighs 147 kg, is equipped with two solar panels and a plasma propulsion system. Six satellites have already been launched into orbit in February 2019, and another 30 will be launched before the end of the year.

OneWeb satellite

Third major project in this area is Kuiper from Amazon. It involves launching 3,236 satellites into low-Earth orbit: 784 satellites will be at an altitude of 590 km above the Earth's surface, 1,296 will rise to 610 km, and the remaining 1,156 satellites will be located at 630 km.

Amazon satellites should provide Internet coverage in the latitude range from 56° north latitude to 56° south latitude. More than 95% of the planet's population lives in this territory. At the same time, the company has not yet launched a single satellite - all devices are at the design stage.

There are so many satellites in orbit - how will new ones interfere?

At a minimum, there will be a lot of new satellites. There are now about 5 thousand devices in low Earth orbit - if SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb launch all the promised satellites, their total number will reach 52 thousand, that is, it will increase more than tenfold.

Each satellite has a brightness - for Starlink devices this indicator was initially estimated at two magnitudes (that is, slightly less than the brightness of the polar star). Then astronomers clarified the estimate - the devices will glow by 5-7 magnitudes.

Light pollution from Starlink satellites

In addition to constantly emitting light, satellites can occasionally “flare up” - with Iridium satellites this happens when sunlight hits their batteries. At these moments, objects observed from Earth will be as bright as Venus or Jupiter. In other words, when the flares occur, the Starlink satellites will be visible to the naked eye from locations with low light pollution.

University of Michigan astronomy professor Patrick Seitzer estimates that the moons will be brightest at twilight, making it difficult to observe potentially dangerous asteroids and other objects in the solar system that are best visible at that time.

Another problem is that for communication and Internet distribution, satellites will use radio frequencies close to those used by astronomers when making observations using ground-based radio telescopes. Interference that may occur during observations will make it very difficult to scientific work, and in some cases will make it useless.

Who exactly will satellites interfere with?

Astronomers' main concerns are related to the operation of the Large Synoptic Telescope (LSST). Scientists associated with the project have created a model of the light pollution that the launch of 50,000 satellites will create over the next 10 years. The study found that every image captured by the telescope would be spoiled by at least one bright streak created by the satellite. Every second picture will show streaks from three or four devices.

LSST telescope project

Construction of the Large Synoptic Telescope has been underway on the top of Mount Cero Pachon in Chile since 2015. The observatory was built according to the Paul-Baker scheme - an eight-meter mirror will allow observations with a diameter of 3.5 degrees and an area of ​​9.6 square degrees. By comparison, the Sun and Moon as seen from Earth have a diameter of 0.5 degrees and an area of ​​0.2 square degrees.

The telescope will search for traces of dark matter and dark energy, map small bodies of the Solar System, search for asteroids potentially dangerous to the Earth, and also create detailed map milky way.

LSST will suffer more from light pollution than other ground-based telescopes, since its mission is to observe the entire night sky several times a week. In one step, the observatory takes a picture of a square of about 40 moons in the night sky - over 30 years of observations, astronomers expect to cover an area of ​​40 billion moons.

During the study, scientists from the telescope mission used image processing to try to remove a streak already left in the image by one of the SpaceX satellites - this took a month. If you spend so much time retouching images, there will be no time left for scientific research, the authors of the work conclude.

Satellite flare streaks in a night sky image

The vast majority of ground-based telescopes will also suffer from a large number of satellites in low-Earth orbit - primarily the largest FAST radio telescope. The fact is that observations in the radio spectrum are carried out at long waves - they are also used for satellite communications.

How are companies reacting?

So far, only the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has responded to the astronomers’ claims - he promised that the company will try to make the details of the satellites darker in order to reduce their reflective properties.

The company added that it shares information about the position of its satellites in the US military catalog and is in discussions with astronomers around the world to assess the consequences and mitigation strategies. SpaceX is ready to change the orbits of satellites to avoid them flying over observation areas, the company said in a statement.

However, astronomers believe that these measures are unlikely to help - primarily due to glare on solar powered satellites. However, the US Scientific Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) is currently developing an agreement with SpaceX that will likely balance the interests of science and the telecommunications project.

Other companies, such as OneWeb, Amazon, Samsung and TeleSat, are not yet engaged in dialogue with the scientific community.

Tomorrow the whole world celebrates Cosmonautics Day. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union launched a manned spacecraft for the first time in history, with Yuri Gagarin on board. Today we will show how the second Kazakhstan telecommunications satellite, KazSat-2 (KazSat-2), was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome at the end of 2011 using the Proton-M launch vehicle. How was the device launched into orbit, what condition is it in, how and from where is it controlled? We will learn about this in this photo report.

1. July 12, 2011. The heaviest Russian space rocket, Proton-M, with the Kazakh communications satellite No. 2 and the American SES-3 (OS-2) is being transported to the launch position. Proton-M is launched only from the Baikonur cosmodrome. It is here that the necessary infrastructure exists to service this complex rocket and space system. The Russian side, namely the manufacturer of the device, the Khrunichev Space Center, guarantees that KazSat-2 will serve for at least 12 years.

Since the signing of the agreement to create the satellite, the project has been reworked several times, and the launch itself has been postponed at least three times. As a result, KazSat-2 received a fundamentally new element base and a new control algorithm. But most importantly, the latest and very reliable navigation instruments produced by the French concern ASTRIUM were installed on the satellite.

This is a gyroscopic angular velocity vector meter and astro sensors. With the help of astro sensors, the satellite orients itself in space according to the stars. It was the failure of navigation equipment that led to the fact that the first KazSat was actually lost in 2008, which almost caused an international scandal.

2. The path of the rocket with the power supply and temperature control systems of the head section connected to it, where the Briz-M upper stage and satellites are located, takes about 3 hours. The speed of the special train is 5-7 kilometers per hour, and the train is served by a team of specially trained drivers.

Another group of cosmodrome security officers inspects the railway tracks. The slightest non-design load can damage the rocket. Unlike its predecessor, KazSat has become more energy-intensive.

The number of transmitters has increased to 16. There were 12 of them on KazSat-1. And the total power of transponders was increased to 4 and a half kilowatts. This will allow you to pump an order of magnitude more data of all kinds. All these changes affected the cost of the device. It amounted to 115 million dollars. The first device cost Kazakhstan 65 million.

3. The inhabitants of the local steppe calmly watch everything that happens. Desert ships)

4. The size and capabilities of this rocket are truly amazing. Its length is 58.2 meters, its weight when filled is 705 tons. At launch, the thrust of the 6 engines of the first stage of the launch vehicle is about 1 thousand tons. This makes it possible to launch objects weighing up to 25 tons into the reference near-Earth orbit, and up to 5 tons into high geostationary orbit (30 thousand km from the Earth’s surface). Therefore, Proton-M is indispensable when it comes to launching telecommunications satellites.

There are simply no two identical spacecraft, because each spacecraft represents completely new technologies. In a short period of time, it happens that completely new elements have to be replaced. “KazSat-2” used those new advanced technologies that already existed at that time. Part of the European-made equipment was supplied, in part where we had failures at KazSat-1. I think that the equipment that we currently have working at KazSat-2 should show good results. It has a fairly good flight history

5. The cosmodrome currently has 4 launch positions for the Proton launch vehicle. However, only 3 of them, at sites No. 81 and No. 200, are in working order. Previously, only the military was involved in launching this rocket due to the fact that working with toxic fuel required strict command leadership. Today the complex is demilitarized, although the combat crews include a lot of former military personnel who have removed their shoulder straps.

The orbital position of the second KazSat has become much more convenient for work. It is 86 and a half degrees east longitude. The coverage area includes the entire territory of Kazakhstan, part of Central Asia and Russia.

6. Sunsets at the Baikonur Cosmodrome are exclusively technological! The massive structure just to the right of the center of the photo is the Proton-M with a service truss connected to it. From the moment the rocket is transported to the launch position of pad No. 200, 4 days pass until the moment of launch. All this time, preparation and testing of Proton-M systems is being carried out. Approximately 12 hours before the launch, a meeting of the state commission is held, which gives permission to refuel the rocket. Refueling starts 6 hours before the start. From this moment on, all operations become irreversible.

7. What benefits does our country receive from having its own communications satellite? First of all, this is a solution to the problem information support Kazakhstan. Your satellite will help expand the range of information services for the entire population of the country. This is an e-government, Internet, mobile communications. The most important thing is that the Kazakh satellite will allow us to partially refuse the services of foreign telecommunications companies that provide relay services to our operator. It's about about tens of millions of dollars that will now go not abroad, but into the country’s budget.

Victor Lefter, President of the Republican Space Communications Center:

Kazakhstan has a fairly large territory compared to other countries. And we must understand that we will not be able to provide communication services that are limited by cable and other systems to every locality, every rural school. The spacecraft solves this problem. Almost the entire territory is closed. Moreover, not only the territory of Kazakhstan, but also part of the territory of neighboring states. And satellite is a stable opportunity to provide communications

8. Various modifications of the Proton launch vehicle have been in operation since 1967. Its chief designer was academician Vladimir Chelomey and his design bureau (currently the Salyut Design Bureau, a branch of the M.V. Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center). We can safely say that all the impressive Soviet projects for the exploration of near-Earth space and the study of solar system objects would not have been feasible without this rocket. In addition, the Proton is distinguished by very high reliability for equipment of this level: over the entire period of its operation, 370 launches were carried out, of which 44 were unsuccessful.

9. The only one main drawback“Proton” are extremely toxic fuel components: unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), or as it is also called “heptyl” and nitrogen tetroxide (“amyl”). In places where the first stage falls (these are areas in the area of ​​​​the city of Dzhezkazgan), environmental pollution occurs, which requires expensive clean-up operations.

The situation seriously worsened in the early 2000s, when three launch vehicle accidents occurred in a row. This caused extreme dissatisfaction with the Kazakh authorities, who demanded large compensation from the Russian side. Since 2001, the old modifications of the launch vehicle have been replaced by the modernized Proton-M. It costs digital system control, as well as a system for bleeding unburned fuel residues in the upper layers of the ionosphere.

Thus, it was possible to significantly reduce damage to the environment. In addition, a project for an environmentally friendly Angara launch vehicle has been developed, but is still on paper, which uses kerosene and oxygen as fuel components, and which should gradually replace the Proton-M. By the way, the Angara launch vehicle complex at Baikonur will be called “Baiterek” (translated from Kazakh as “Topol”.)

10. It was the reliability of the rocket that at one time attracted the Americans. In the 90s, the ILS joint venture was created, which positioned the rocket in the American telecommunications systems market. Today, most American civilian communications satellites are launched by Proton-M from a cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe. The American SES-3 (owned by SES WORLD SKIES), which is located at the head of the rocket along with the Kazakh KazSat-2, is one of many launched from Baikonur.

11. In addition to the Russian and American flags, the rocket also carries the Kazakh flag and the emblem of the Republican Space Communications Center, the organization that today owns and operates the satellite.

12. July 16, 2011 5 hours 16 minutes and 10 seconds in the morning. The climax. Fortunately, everything goes well.

13. 3 months after launch. Young specialists are the leading engineer of the satellite control department Bekbolot Azaev, as well as his colleagues engineers Rimma Kozhevnikova and Asylbek Abdrakhmanov. These guys run KazSat-2.

14. Akmola region. The small, and until 2006, unremarkable regional center Akkol became widely known 5 years ago, when the country's first MCC, a flight control center for orbital satellites, was built here. October is cold, windy and rainy here, but now is the busiest time for those people who must give the KazSat-2 satellite the status of a full-fledged and important segment of Kazakhstan’s telecommunications infrastructure.

15. After the loss of the first satellite in 2008, a major modernization was carried out at the Akkol Space Communications Center. It already allows you to control two devices at once.

Baurzhan Kudabaev, vice-president of the Republican Center for Space Communications:

A special software, new equipment was supplied. In front of you is the rack of the command and measurement system. This is a supply from the American company Vertex, as was the case with KazSat-1, but with a new modification, an improved version. The developments of the Russian Space Systems company were used. Those. These are all developments of today. New programs, hardware components. All this improves the work with our spacecraft

16. Darkhan Maral, head of the flight control center at the workplace. In 2011, young specialists, graduates of Russian and Kazakh universities, came to the Center. They have already been taught how to work, and according to the leadership of the RCKS, there are no problems with personnel replenishment. In 2008 the situation was much sadder. After the loss of the first satellite, a significant part of highly educated people left the center.

17. October 2011 was another culminating moment in the work on the Kazakh satellite. Its flight design tests were completed, and the so-called test tests began. Those. it was like an exam for the manufacturer on the functionality of the satellite. Everything happened in the following way. The television signal was raised on KazSat-2.

Then several groups of specialists went to different regions of Kazakhstan and measured the parameters of this signal, i.e. How correctly the signal is relayed by the satellite. There were no comments, and in the end the special commission adopted an act on the transfer of the satellite to the Kazakh side. From this moment on, Kazakh specialists have been operating the device.

18. Until the end of November 2011, a large group of Russian specialists worked at the Akkol space center. They represented subcontractors for the KazSat-2 project. These are the leading companies in the Russian space industry: Center named after. Khrunichev, who developed and built the satellite, the Mars design bureau (it specializes in the field of navigation of orbital satellites), as well as the Russian Space Systems corporation, which develops software.

The whole system is divided into two components. This is, in fact, the satellite itself and the ground control infrastructure. According to the technology, first the contractor must demonstrate the operability of the system - this is equipment installation, debugging, demonstration functionality. After all procedures - training of Kazakhstani specialists.

19. The space communications center in Akkola is one of the few places in our country where a favorable electromagnetic environment has developed. There are no radiation sources for many tens of kilometers around here. They can cause interference and interfere with control of the satellite. 10 large parabolic antennas are directed into the sky at one single point. There, at a great distance from the surface of the Earth - more than 36 thousand kilometers - hangs a small man-made object - the Kazakh communications satellite KazSat-2.

Most modern communications satellites are geostationary. Those. their orbit is constructed in such a way that it seems to hover over one geographical point, and the rotation of the Earth has practically no effect on this stable position. This allows you to pump large volumes of information using an onboard repeater and confidently receive this information in the coverage area on Earth.

20. Another interesting detail. According to international rules, the permissible deviation of a satellite from its position can be a maximum of half a degree. For the MCC specialists, keeping the device within the specified parameters is a piece of jewelry work that requires the highest qualifications of ballistics specialists. The center will employ 69 people, of which 36 are technical specialists.

21. This is the main control panel. There is a large monitor on the wall, where all the telemetry is collected, and on a semicircular table there are several computers and telephones. Everything seems to be very simple...

23. Victor Lefter, President of the Republican Space Communications Center:
- We will expand the Kazakh flotilla to 3, 4, and perhaps even up to 5 satellites. Those. so that there is a constant replacement of devices, there is a reserve, and so that our operators do not feel such an urgent need to use products from other countries. So that we are provided with our reserves.”

24. Currently, satellite control reservation is carried out from Moscow, where the space center named after. Khrunicheva. However, the Republican Center for Space Communications intends to reserve a flight from Kazakhstani territory. For this purpose, a second control center is currently being built. It will be located 30 kilometers north of Almaty.

25. The National Space Agency of Kazakhstan plans to launch the third satellite, KazSat-3, in 2013. The contract for its development and production was signed in 2011 in France, at the aerospace show in Le Bourget. The satellite for Kazakhstan is being built by the Academician Reshetnev NPO, which is located in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk.

26. Control department operator interface. This is what he looks like now.

In the video you can see how this satellite was launched.

Original taken from here

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The weight of the cargo was a record

Sixty satellites created as part of SpaceX's Starlink project were successfully delivered into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, marking a new step towards creating a network that provides people around the world with affordable access to high-speed Internet.

Starlink is a low-orbit satellite system project whose development began in 2015. The first step towards realizing these goals was the launch of the Tintin-A and Tintin-B test satellites in February last year. This time, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle delivered 60 satellites into orbit at once - the “payload” amounted to a record 18.5 tons for the company.

The launch took place at 22:30 US East Coast time or 05:30 Friday Moscow time. All of them were successfully delivered into orbit. Some time later, American entrepreneur Elon Musk wrote on his Twitter page that the satellites were online, and the deployment of a solar array was expected in the near future.

All 60 Starlink satellites online, solar array deployment coming up soon

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2019

However, for the successful implementation of the project, according to calculations by company employees, it is necessary to launch two hundred times more satellites into orbit - it is planned that their total number will be about twelve thousand, and the weight of each will reach from 100 to 500 kilograms.

According to the project, approximately three and a half thousand satellites operating in the Ku- and Ka-bands will be located in 83 orbital planes at an altitude of 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers, and the remaining seven and a half thousand will operate at an altitude of 335 to 346 kilometers. Constant access to the Internet should be ensured due to the fact that at any given moment there is at least one satellite above any point on the planet, and if it goes beyond the horizon, then another one immediately appears from behind the horizon.

The launch of the satellite into space marked a new era and became a breakthrough in the field of technology and astronautics. The need to create a satellite was determined at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, from the very beginning, there were many problems on the way to launching a satellite into outer space, which the best engineers and scientists worked on. These problems were associated with the need to create engines that could operate in the most difficult conditions and at the same time, they must be unusually powerful. Problems were also associated with the correct determination of the satellite’s trajectory.

So, Soviet scientists solved the assigned problems, and on October 4, 1957, an artificial satellite was successfully launched in the USSR, the movement of which was watched by the whole world. This event became a world breakthrough and marked new stage, both in science in general and throughout the world.

Live broadcast of the Soyuz-Progress launch (mission to the ISS)

Problems solved by satellite

The tasks solved by launching a satellite can be defined as the following:

1. Study of climate;

Everyone knows the impact climate has on agriculture and military infrastructure. Thanks to satellites, it is possible to predict the appearance of destructive elements and avoid a large number of victims.

2. Study of meteorites;

There are a huge number of meteorites in outer space, the weight of which reaches several thousand tons. Meteorites can pose a danger not only to satellites, spaceships, but also for people. If during the passage of a meteorite the frictional force is small, then the unburned part can reach the Earth. The speed range of meteorites reaches from 1220 m/sec to 61000 m/sec.

3. Application of television broadcasting;

Currently, the role of television is great. In 1962, the first television broadcaster was launched, thanks to which the world for the first time saw video footage across the Atlantic within a few minutes.

4. GPS system.

GPS plays a huge role in almost every area of ​​our lives. GPS is divided into civil and military. It represents electromagnetic signals emitted in the radio wave part of the spectrum by an antenna installed on each of the satellites. It consists of 24 satellites that are in orbit at an altitude of 20,200 km. The orbital time around the Earth is 12 hours.

Telecommunications satellite “Arabsat-5B”

Launch of Soyuz

Launching satellites and putting them into orbit

To begin with, it is important to designate the satellite’s flight path. At first glance, it seems that it is more logical to launch the rocket perpendicularly (at the shortest distance to the target), however, this type of launch turns out to be unprofitable, both from an engineering point of view and from an economic one. A satellite launched vertically is affected by the Earth's gravitational forces, which significantly move it away from the designated trajectory, and the traction force becomes equal to the Earth's gravity.

To avoid the satellite falling, it is first launched vertically so that it can overcome the elastic layers of the atmosphere; such a flight continues for only 20 km. Next, the satellite, using the autopilot, tilts and moves horizontally towards orbit.

In addition, the engineers' task is to calculate the flight path in such a way that the speed spent on overcoming atmospheric layers, as well as fuel consumption, is only a few percent of the characteristic speed.

It is also important in which direction to launch the satellite. When a rocket is launched in the direction of the Earth's rotation, there is an increase in speed, which depends on the location of the launch. For example, at the equator it is maximum and amounts to 403 m/s.

Satellite orbits are either circular or elliptical. The orbit will be elliptical if the rocket speed is higher than the peripheral speed. The point located in the closest position is called perigee, and the most distant one is called apogee.

The launch of the rocket with the satellite itself is carried out in several stages. When the first stage engine stops operating, the launch vehicle tilt angle will be 45 degrees, at an altitude of 58 km, then it will be separated. The second stage engines are switched on, with an increasing angle of inclination. Further, the second stage separates at an altitude of 225 km. Then, by inertia, the rocket reaches an altitude of 480 km and ends up at a point located at a distance of 1125 km from the launch. Then the third stage engines begin to operate.

Returning the satellite to earth

The return of the satellite to Earth is accompanied by some problems associated with braking. Braking can be done in two ways:

1. Thanks to atmospheric resistance. The speed of a satellite entering the upper atmosphere will decrease, but due to its aerodynamic shape it will ricochet back into outer space. After this, the satellite will reduce its speed and enter deeper into the atmosphere. This will happen several times. After reducing the speed, the satellite will descend using retractable wings.
2. Automatic rocket engine. The rocket engine must be directed in the direction opposite to the movement of the artificial satellite. Plus this method is that the braking speed can be adjusted.

Conclusion

So, satellites have entered human life in just half a century. Their participation helps explore new outer spaces. A satellite, as a means of uninterrupted communication, helps make it convenient daily life of people. Paving the way into outer space, they help make our lives what they are now.

08/30/2019, Fri, 18:00, Moscow time , Text: Elyas Qasmi

Operator Russian system GLONASS brought out the third GLONASS-M navigation satellite in a month for maintenance. It, like all second-generation satellites in the constellation, has exceeded its seven-year service life. The lack of satellites has led to incomplete coverage of the planet's surface by the system, and the timing of the return of two of the three devices to service is unknown.

GLONASS without satellites

The Russian GLONASS navigation system lost its third satellite during August 2019. The 745 spacecraft (7th operating point), launched into orbit eight years ago, in 2011, was decommissioned.

According to the information and analytical center for coordinate-time and navigation support GLONASS, the satellite was removed from the system temporarily - it needs to undergo maintenance. As a result, as of August 30, 2019, of the 27 GLONASS-M spacecraft in orbit, only 21 are used for their intended purpose.

Three satellites are undergoing maintenance, one is undergoing flight tests, and the remaining two are reserve. According to RIA Novosti, this number is not enough to cover 100% of the planet’s surface - for this there must be at least 24 spacecraft in service.

Non-warranty satellites

Currently, half of the current GLONASS system consists of second-generation GLONASS-M satellites, which replaced the first generation (launched from 1982 to 2003 inclusive). The maintenance period for satellite number 745 was unknown at the time of publication of the material. The exact dates for the return of satellite 742, taken out of the system several days earlier, are also not known. The 717 spacecraft is scheduled to return to service on September 1, 2019; it has been in service since August 1, 2019, and was launched into Earth orbit in 2006.

GLONASS-M satellite, the basis of the GLONASS system

The second generation of GLONASS spacecraft has certain warranty periods established by a subsidiary of Roscosmos, Information Satellite Systems named after. M.F. Reshetnev, and equal to seven years. In other words, half of the 27 satellites operate outside their own warranty period. In addition, new GLONASS-M are not being produced - their production was discontinued in 2015.

Incomplete coverage and the future of GLONASS

For the Russian analogue of the American GPS, inadequate coverage of the Earth has become a regular occurrence over the past few years. Thus, in April 2018, there was no signal from satellite No. 723 for a short time, a little later it was joined by satellite 734, which was resuscitated only a month after the failure, in May 2018.

In September 2018, due to routine maintenance, GLONASS-M devices 730, 743 and 745 were not working. However, at that time, the deadline for completing the work was exactly two days - September 9 and 10, 2018, in contrast to the situation with No. 717 , whose maintenance took a month.

Updating GLONASS satellites in orbit, according to RBC, is carried out solely out of necessity - in such situations, the old device is simply replaced with a new one. All GLONASS-M satellites will gradually be replaced by the third generation of spacecraft, called GLONASS-K and with a 10-year service life. This is three years longer than GLONASS-M and seven years longer than the first generation of satellites. The first GLONASS-K was launched into orbit on February 26, 2011.

GLONASS-K can be used for 10 years, instead of 7 for GLONASS-M

In June 2019, the Russian authorities stated the impossibility of serial production of GLONASS-K devices within the budget for 2019. The reason was the shortage of imported components associated with sanctions imposed by the West against Russia in relation to military and dual-use electronics.

History of GLONASS

GLONASS (Global Navigation satellite system) - originally a Soviet dual-use navigation system, civil and military. Development started in 1963.

The system was developed as a domestic alternative to the American GPS, the first satellite was launched into orbit in 1982 (the launch of the first GPS spacecraft took place in 1978). Initially, it had an exclusively military purpose. The GLONASS satellite constellation moves in three orbital planes with an orbital altitude of 19.1 thousand km. Unlike GPS, GLONASS satellites are not synchronized with the rotation of the planet, due to which higher stability of the entire system as a whole is achieved. This also simplifies system maintenance since there is no need for additional satellite adjustments.