TSAMTO, October 8. The design of highly elliptical and small navigation satellites of the GLONASS system is beginning in Russia, Nikolay Testoyedov, CEO of Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
GLONASS is one of four systems created in the world, similar to the American GPS, the Chinese BeiDou and the European Galileo. The Russian development is particularly important for the effective solution of the tasks of the Armed Forces. The signals of the system are used in high-precision weapons, unmanned aircraft and for operational control of troops.
"The creation of a highly elliptical segment is included in the GLONASS subprogram of the program "Space Activities of Russia until 2030". A contract is being prepared, tactical and technical requirements for the system and spacecraft are being prescribed. We expect that the financing of the work will begin this year," N. Testoyedov told RIA Novosti.
In addition, as part of the same work, the development of a platform for a small navigation device begins in 2021.
Earlier it was reported that six GLONASS-VKK satellites (a highly elliptical space complex) are planned to be launched in 2023-2025, but then the dates were postponed to 2026-2027. Yuri Urlichich, First Deputy Director General of ROSCOSMOS, explained that the accuracy of the GLONASS system will increase by a quarter due to the launch of these additional devices, the agency notes.
Also in the materials of the space corporation it was said that the promising GLONASS orbital grouping after 2030, in addition to the upgraded highly elliptical satellites "VKK-M", will include small-sized devices "MNKA-M", additional "DKA", geostationary "GSO-M" and medium-orbital "GLONASS-KM", RIA Novosti reports.
