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Putin issues orders to keep perfecting GLONASS ground infrastructures

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has issued instructions to go ahead with efforts to perfect the ground infrastructures of the satellite navigation system GLONASS
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has issued instructions to go ahead with efforts to perfect the ground infrastructures of the satellite navigation system GLONASS.

At a meeting of the government’s presidium he recalled that currently in orbit there were 30 GLONASS satellites, of which 24 were in service, some, in the stand-by condition, and some were undergoing maintenance.

“The GLONASS system has gone global,” Putin said, adding that the ground component of that program should continue to receive unflagging attention.

“As for the GLONASS system, we made a decision to work in the outpacing mode and we coped with that task,” he said. “This is one of the major trends in high technology. We set this task and we managed. But a lot remains to be done," warned the prime minister. He warned that the GLONASS system as a whole was still not perfect and required a lot of work."

“This is mainly due to the surface component,” the prime minister said. “There is mapping, ground equipment, and small appliances for users in different sectors. All of this should be cheap and widely available."

"Once again I draw the attention of the heads of departments, ministries, and especially the transport organizations to the need to use the GLONASS system,” Putin said. “Especially because it is a double one - GLONASS-GPS.”

On Monday, another GLONASS satellite was successfully launched into the target orbit. The purpose was to build up the constellation of the GLONASS system to a state that would guarantee the continuity of the navigation signal on the global scale.

The civil part of the GLONASS system is to form a continuous navigational signal space, in which it will be possible to accurately determine the coordinates and velocity of any moving object equipped with a receiver. It also provides solutions to problems in the field of Russia’s security.