Faulty GLONASS Satellite Going Back to Manufacturer
November 12, 2010GLONASS Birds on the Move
News courtesy of CANSPACE Listserv.
ISS-Reshetnev, the manufacturer of GLONASS satellites, and Roscosmos have issued the following statement:
"During inspections of the spacecraft GLONASS-M No. 39, held after the delivery to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a fault has been identified in one of its subsystems. The satellite will be returned to the manufacturer for troubleshooting. This will not affect the planned December launch of the spacecraft GLONASS-M No. 39, 40, 41 in block No. 43."
No new launch date has yet been announced.
GLONASS satellites are transported by air from Zheleznogorsk to Baikonur using an Ilyushin Il-76TD transport aircraft operated by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. This video shows the delivery of GLONASS-M satellite No. 40 to Baikonur on November 8.
GLONASS Sats Moving
GLONASS 733 is being moved from its original orbit location — Plane 1, slot 4 — to Plane 1, slot 6. The initial orbit manuver (delta-V) occurred on or about October 6. A second delta-V will be performed once the satellite reaches its targeted position.
Meanwhile, the GLONASS authorities are currently conducting a test to check the possibility of using a spare space vehicle from the orbiting reserves by simultaneously transmitting navigation signals from two SVs (GLONASS 722 and 736) residing near GLONASS orbital slot 9. For this test, GLONASS 722 has been assigned almanac slot 3 while 736 has almanac slot 9.
A plot of current GLONASS satellite positions has been posted. Healthy satellites are colored green, unhealthy ones red, and official reserve satellites orange.
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