The Russians are keeping their constellation full.
On July 25 a 4 Galileo launch will essential fill their constellation.
Meanwhile he first GPS 3 satellite may be launched in October. It has been delayed a few times and now they have changed launch vehicles. Despite being years behind and way over budget the US has granted Lockheed the contract for 22 additional new satellites.
Paul in PA
Will the Galileo be operational straight away??ÿ
Is the mix of Galileo (EU) and GLONASS (Russian) in the subject title and OP correct, or am I missing something?
Ah I see.?ÿ I thought the subject referring to Saturday's launch was related to line 2 - July 25th launch, but that is a Wednesday. So the subject and line 1 are Russian, line 2 is EU and line 3 is USA.
Three lines, 3 different constellations, yes. First sentence should have been clearer. I have not been a
BeiDou follower.
For Galileo users, are the satellites in the oddball orbits useable and useful?
Paul in PA
I wonder how long GLONASS will be a viable system? One major issue is the Russians used FDMA at the outset and all other systems used CDMA, this would be similar to having a phone that operates on both Verizon (CDMA) and AT&T (GSM). Both work but it adds complexity to receivers to support both. I have heard GLONASS may or is adding CDMA to replenishment satellites, but until the old ones are all retired it seems problematic.
Extra constellations only add marginally to the solution once you have a solution, the big advantage is actually getting a solution where a single constellation receiver struggles, so to that end once a couple of the other constellations are fully operational it seems to make little economic sense for receiver manufactures to include ability for GLONASS. I guess I wouldn't want to be in the Russians shoes knowing I have the only Beta Max system 🙂
SHG