MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The development of a high-orbit GLONASS complex will begin in 2019, according to Roscosmos first deputy head Yury Urlichich.
"As large urban areas demonstrate growing use of navigation technologies, these users experience difficulties receiving signals from SC [spacecraft] flying below the elevation angle of 25°. To provide a navigation solution in such environments, we will begin development of High-Orbit GLONASS in 2019," Urlichich wrote in an article in GPS World, a Russian translation of which was published on the website of TsNIIMash's Information and Analysis Center for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing.
"High-Orbit GLONASS will consist of six SC distributed among the three orbital planes and forming two SC ground traces," Urlichich wrote.
"The new generation space segment will be populated with Glonass-B satellites designed on the proven Glonass-K platform, successfully providing services since 2012. Users will be offered the full spectrum of new CDMA signals in all three GLONASS frequency bands," he wrote.
"The first Glonass-B is planned for launch in 2023, with the full constellation of six SC to be deployed by the end of 2025, increasing by 25% the navigation accuracy in the Eastern hemisphere," Urlichich wrote.
"The satellite mass below 1,000 kg allows Angara-A5, the new Russian heavy launch vehicle, to perform a dual launch from either Plesetsk or Vostochny launch sites," he wrote.
GLONASS satellites provide geo-positioning data and are used in the ERA-GLONASS state automated information system, whose round-the-clock use in Russia began on January 1, 2015.