Three modernised satellites Glonass-M are to be launched on one rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

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Three modernised satellites Glonass-M are to be launched on one rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome, a Russian Federal Space Agency official told ITAR-TASS on Thursday. A Proton-K rocket with a DM propulsion unit and three satellites will be launched at 23:18 Moscow time on December 25, he said. The satellites are to add to Russia’s global navigation system GLONASS. Preparation of the launch is going according to plan. Checks of the rocket’s control systems were carried out on Thursday. Two Glonass-M satellites have been tested. Electronic vacuum heat insulation is being installed on the third. Combined units carrying two Glonass satellites and one with a modernized Glonass-M were launched in 2004 and 2005. The new satellite Glonass-M had been deigned at the Zheleznogorsk applied mechanics science and production association. Their operation life has been extended from three to five years. The transition to the new navigation satellites with the prolonged service life will allow making rocket launches less frequently in prospect, with the trimming of spending on the maintenance of the GLNASS system, the agency’s spokesman said. The applied mechanics science and production association is also developing a Glonass-K satellite that will operate in obit for ten years. It will have advanced technical characteristics and a substantially lower weight as compared to Glonass and Glonass-M satellites.

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