You know where you are, but do you know where you have to go?
What’s the solution? Navigation
Through? Global Network Satellite System or GNSS provides the location and time information anywhere on the earth
Use of satellites for navigation began with the US Navy Navigation Satellite System, NNSS in 1964
The need to have an independent military capability drove this growth and now it’s for civilian use as well
GNSS have increased rapidly into four major global and two regional systems.
Global Positioning System (United States)
Popularly known as GPS
The oldest system began operations in 1978
It has 31 operational satellites in its constellation
Committed to maintain the availability of at least 24 operational GPS satellites
It is maintained by the US Air Force
GLONASS (Russia)
Became operational in 1993 over Russia with 12 satellites in 2 orbits at 19,130 km
Total satellites in constellations 27, all operational
Operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces
Second alternative navigational system in operation
Galileo (EU)
14 Satellites are in orbit
And
4 More to be launched in November 2016
The fully deployed Galileo system will consist of 24 operational satellites plus 6 in-orbit spares
Created by the European Union through the European Space Agency and the European GNSS Agency
Galileo has started offering Early Operational Capability from 2016
It will go to Initial Operational Capability in 2017-18 and reach Full Operational Capability in 2019
BeiDou (China)
21 Operational satellites, full constellation is scheduled to comprise 35 satellites
First BeiDou system, called the BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System consisted of 3 satellites
The second generation is of 35-satellite constellation known as BeiDou-2
Became operational in December 2011, with 10 satellites
Began offering services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012
The third generation BeiDou system BDS-3 was launched in 2015 and is a global coverage constellation
As of March 2016, total of 4 BDS-3 in-orbit validation satellites have been launched
QZSS (Japan)
Total 4 satellites planned; 1 in orbit
Full operational status expected by 2018
Work under taken by the Satellite Positioning Research and Application Center, Japan
IRNSS ― NAVIC (India)
7 Satellite constellations, all operational
3 Satellites are in the geostationary orbit and 4 in geosynchronous orbits
Designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India
But it can cover the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary
Created and operated by Indian Space Research Organisation
But there is still some time before India starts getting its services
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