Failure of GLONASS - Satellite System disrupted for 30 mins yesterday

Translated from Russian From :

http://www.interfax.ru/russia/371646



Eight satellites Glonass navigation system both went out for half an hour last night . This is the second failure in the system from the beginning of the month.

Problems started a few minutes before the morning on April 15. Spacecraft number number 747 , 743 , 717 , 737 , 738 , 720, 732 and 735 show signs of " unhealthy " in their ephemeris ( satellite position data in space. - IF) . This condition persisted for half an hour , said the information-analytical center of Roscosmos .

Shortly before it crashed another machine. Approximately at 22:20 Moscow time on Monday started having problems with the satellite number 730. It is still in the status of " not feeling well ."

This is the second state of emergency in the GLONASS system in two weeks. On April it has failed for more than 10 hours. Spacecraft were given incorrect information about its location and therefore provide consumers the wrong navigation information . An error occurred while virtually all vehicles.

As explained by the " Interfax" a source in the space industry , then the problem was caused by the " human factor " - the program tab on board vehicles incorrect data .

April 11 , it became known that a group of GLONASS satellites are 22 of the 24 necessary apparatus . Therefore, the system is not yet able to provide coverage of the entire Earth navigation signal .

For uninterrupted availability of the GLONASS system anywhere in the world need to work 24 spacecraft . Navigation support for customers in Russia rather work 18 vehicles.