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GLONASS terrestrial station goes live in South Africa

The station is particularly intended for continuous monitoring of GLONASS and GPS satellites’ navigation signals

Assembling a Glonass-M spacecraft Evgeniy Kurskov/TASS

Assembling a Glonass-M spacecraft

© Evgeniy Kurskov/TASS

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. A terrestrial station of the Russian GLONASS global navigation system was commissioned in the territory of Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in South Africa, Russia’s Precision Instrument Systems Corporation (station developer) said on Tuesday.

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"Sazhen-TM-BIS station was formally commissioned in the Republic of South Africa," the corporation said.

"We are glad to see here the deliverable of our joint thorough work. We are looking forward with optimism and express readiness to participate in future joint projects with the South African party," Chief Executive of the Precision Instrument Systems Corporation Yuri Roi said at the opening ceremony.

Sazhen-TM-BIS station in South Africa has become the second radio laser package of the overseas network segment created for the GLONASS system. The first package was installed and commissioned in 2014 in Brazil.

The station is particularly intended for continuous monitoring of GLONASS and GPS satellites’ navigation signals, measurements of current navigation parameters of their travel and receipt of navigation messages from satellites.

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