The ground services of Russia’s Glonass satellite navigation system could be placed at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ facilities abroad.
"We count on the Russian Academy of Sciences’ assistance in building a global monitoring network for Glonass and hope to locate our stations at the academy’s facilities abroad," Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, told the Academy of Science’s presidium on Tuesday.
"I would like to make special mention of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ efforts to locate navigation monitoring stations of the Glonass system in Cuba," he said.
The Glonass orbital grouping currently has 20 satellites, 19 of which are in operation and one under technical maintenance.
"The current structure of the satellite grouping guarantees uninterrupted navigation over the entire territory of the Russian Federation. After six Glonass-M satellites are launched in 2009 and another six in 2010, and the satellites whose service life has expired are removed from operation, the number of satellites will reach 24 in 2010, which will guarantee continuous global navigation," Perminov said.