ZHUHAI, November 12. /TASS/. Russia is preparing to deploy up to three GLONASS stations in China and will also host augmentation system stations for Beijing’s Beidou navigation satellite system, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Wednesday.
Both Russia and China are currently “in talks” on jointly using the navigation systems, Oleg Ostapenko told journalists.
“We have agreed to place their (China's) augmentation system stations on the territory of Russia, and our stations will be also deployed in China,” Ostapenko said.
The Roscosmos chief also said the first step has been already made and both Chinese and Russian experts have studied several places for the deployment of the stations.
Speaking on the idea to use Chinese chips in GPS and GLONASS-equipped gadgets, Ostapenko said, “Why not? We will see. In theory, this is possible.”
China’s navigation system Beidou, also known as COMPASS, is to be deployed by 2017, and by 2020 it is expected to provide global coverage. For this China is to build up the constellation of satellites to 35.
Russia’s GLONASS system comprises 28 satellites, including 24 operational spacecraft, three spares, and one platform in a flight testing phase. In Russia, 19 ground stations provide consumers with a navigation signal with an accuracy of one meter. Three stations are located in the Antarctic, and one in Brazil. Two are to be set up in Kazakhstan and one in Belarus.