The Russian Defense Ministry has reportedly refused to adopt
GLONASS, the country’s rival to GPS, due to its technical shortcomings. One of
the system’s 24 satellites has malfunctioned, and besides, GLONASS is still in
its testing phase.
The malfunctioning satellite will not be operational any
time soon as it has already exhausted its power after 96 months in service,
Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. And due to a difference in orbit inclination, no
existing reserve satellite can substitute it.
A backup satellite launched in December 2008 stopped working
in September of this year, allegedly because of malfunctioning Taiwanese-made
microchips. According to the report, Moscow
was forced to order the microchips from Taiwan
when the US, Japan
and several other NATO countries refused to supply the GLONASS manufacturers
with spare parts following Russia’s
war with South Ossetia.
Though three GLONASS-M satellites are reportedly ready to be
put into orbit, Russia’s
2013 budget has not allocated funds for additional launches. Formally, the
navigation system is still in the development stage, which was planned to be
completed by the end of 2012 with the Defense Ministry taking full control of
the system. Due to systematic problems this has not happened, yet the federal program
under which the project is funded has no provisions for any extension of the
testing phase.
There are currently 31 GLONASS satellites in orbit, 23 of
which are in operation. Others are either in reserve, or still being tested. If
another satellite fails, it could delay the launch of the system by several
more years.
Starting from January
1, 2013, all public transportation operators and the carriers of
hazardous materials were ordered to equip their vehicles with GLONASS systems
and report their locations to Rostransnadzor, Russia’s
transport supervision agency. This requirement, however, is not legally binding
unless the satellite system is formally put into operation.
GLONASS' development has been marred by corruption scandals
in addition to its numerous technical failures.
In December 2010, three GLONASS-M satellites crashed into
the Pacific Ocean. The approximate cost of the equipment
was estimated at $80 million.
In November 2012, inspectors from Roscosmos, the Russian
space agency, uncovered several significant violations in the use of budgetary
funds allocated to GLONASS. The investigators said that 6.5 billion rubles
(over $200 million) were embezzled from the budget. As a result of the scandal,
Yury Urlichich was sacked from his post as GLONASS chief designer and then
resigned as the head of the Russian Institute of Space Device Engineering.
The GLOSNASS case came amid a separate scandal in which
Russian Defense Ministry head Anatoly Serdyukov was sacked for his involvement
in large-scale corruption.
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