The Russian gps alternative Glonass has now 24 functioning satellites, which global coverage is achieved. There are now 31 navigation satellites of Glonass in orbit around the earth, but the 24th is this week put into use.
Glonass is a navigatieplatform whose preparation is already in 1976 was started by the then soviet government. After the collapse of the Soviet Union fell, the roll-out still, but Putin sees it as a priority and now is Glonass the main project of the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Glonass existed until november 27 satellites, but only 23 of them were functional. The system has at least 24 operating satellites and two-to-three-reservekunstmanen need to have global coverage to offer. The 24th is this week activated, writes the Russian news service Ria Novosti. It was one of the three new satellites in november in an orbit around the earth. The three of them followed on a failed launch last year.
The navigation system will get in the next decade a capital injection of 1.4 billion euros, which will be used for the technology to perfect. This year, a further two satellites on, in early 2012 followed by another. Glonass is as a complement to gps, not to devices better positioning. ST-Ericsson, Broadcom and Qualcomm give their chips, in addition to gps, also Glonass support, and among other things, the iPhone 4S can deal with signals of the system. China and Europe are working on alternative services.
