Azerbaijan may join Russian GLONASS
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan does not exclude the possibility of joining the Russian satellite navigation system GLONASS, said Rashad Nabiyev, the chairman of Azerbaijan’s satellite operator Azercosmos.
Azerbaijan's participation in this project is not on the agenda, but it is quite possible, if the parties would reach appropriate arrangements.
GLONASS is designed for an efficient navigation and time support of unlimited number of users based on ground, sea, air and space.
Russian and foreign consumers have free of charge access without restrictions to civil GLONASS signals throughout the world.
The main difference of GLONASS satellites from the GPS system is that GLONASS satellites in their orbital motion have no resonance (synchronous) with the rotation of the Earth, which provides them with greater stability.
Thus, the grouping of GLONASS satellites does not require additional adjustments for the duration of the active life. However, the service life of the GLONASS satellite is considerably shorter than of other spacecraft.
Azerbaijan entered the space club in February 2013 with the launch of the first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite Azerspace-1.
At present, Azercosmos operates telecommunication satellite Azerspace and low-orbit satellite AzerSky. Launching of the second telecommunication satellite is expected by the end of 2017.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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