The first batch of 1,000 navigator units, which are capable of reading signals of Russia’s Glonass and the U.S. GPS, was sold out within 20 minutes; the demand was huge, he said.
“The competition for this market, which is estimated at billions of dollars, was fierce inside and outside Russia, and we may still encounter unfriendly acts, some of them against the Federal Space Agency,” he said.
“However, the moment of truth has come, and everyone in Russia and abroad realized that the system will be created and there is no way back. Our industry is capable of making navigation units,” Perminov said. “The market was jolted, as the sellers of GPS services would lose their monopoly.”
The fact that Russian navigation units receive signals from both Glonass and GPS makes them more precise, Perminov said. The Federal Industry Agency is in charge of the production of navigation units, while the Federal Space Agency coordinates the entire Glonass program.
The navigation units with sensor displays are 17.5 centimeters large and weigh 400 grams. They can receive 12 Glonass channels and 20 GPS channels.
Next year the Federal Space Agency will launch six Glonass satellites to enlarge its orbiting cluster, Perminov said.
“We are drafting amendments to the federal program ‘Global Navigation System.’ There will also be a federal program of regional uses of space exploration benefits. We will do a lot for the development of the Vostochny spaceport. Many launches will be done, primarily those of three telecom satellites, two research satellites, two manned spaceships Soyuz and five Progress freighters, as well as six Glonass satellites,” he said.
As for the agency’s targets for 2008, he named the drafting of a concept of Russian space activity until 2040. The concept will be discussed at the Russian Security Council in February 2008.
The Glonass cluster provides for navigation support to the defense and security agencies, as well as state-run air, automobile, railroad and sea transport, geodesy and cartography and civilian users.
The Glonass services are available at over 90% of the Russian territory, while the world accessibility of space navigation services nears 80%, Perminov said.
A Proton-M rocket with a DM booster unit delivered three Glonass satellites to orbit on December 25.
“The cluster separated from the third stage of the rocket launched from the Baikonur spaceport at 10:42 p.m. Moscow time,” the agency said.
The satellites eventually reached the designated circular orbit of 19,130 kilometers.
The Proton-M heavy three-stage rocket was designed and manufactured at the Khrunichev Aerospace center. It uses the booster unit to deliver a satellite to the designated orbit. All the three stages have economical liquid-fuel engines with highly toxic content: nitrogen tetroxide as the oxydizer and heptyl as the fuel. The rocket with the Briz-M booster unit can bring to geostationary orbits the payload of 3-3.3 tonnes, as well as the payload of six tonnes to geo-transitional orbits. The takeoff weight of the rocket is about 700 tonnes.
The first launch of a Proton-M with the Briz-M booster unit was made on April 7, 2001. This year four Proton-M rockets were launched from Baikonur under various programs. One of the launches was unsuccessful.
The Glonass system was designed to order of the Space Forces. The first satellite was put to orbit on October 12, 1982, and the cluster became operational in 1993. The Glonass federal targeted program for the period until 2011 was adopted in 2001, and 24 billion rubles were assigned for its implementation.
Russia is using two types of Glonass satellites – Glonass and Glonass-M, which has the service life extended to seven years. Three Glonass-M satellites were successfully delivered to orbit in the middle of last December. It is planned to launch Glonass-K satellites with the service life of ten-twelve years in the future.
The Glonass-M satellite was designed at the Krasnoyarsk Applied Mechanics Center. It has an updated antenna and the longer service life (of seven years). The previous modification of the Glonass satellite, Glonass-K, had the service life of 3-4.5 years. The satellite weighs 1,415 kilograms.