2 GLONASS satellites will be launched from Plesetsk spaceport (Arkhangelsk region) in September and October 2013, – Director General and Chief Designer of JSC Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Nickolay Testoyedov reported to RIA.
Earlier it was reported that 1 GLONASS satellite will be launched in December 2013.
“We haven’t planned to launch anything from Plesetsk in December. This year we plan to launch 2 more GLONASS satellites from Plesetsk to make up GLONASS group due to the recent Proton-M crash. We will set the necessary quantity of satellites into the orbitduring the nearest 4 months that is by October. We plan to launch the first GLONASS satellitein early September, and the second one – in late October”, – Testoyedov said. He also specified that the satellites will be launched by Soyuz boosters.
According to him GLONASS orbital group is out of any danger at the moment, all 24 satellites of the group are operating.
The booster with 3 Russian GLONASS-M navigational satellites crashed at Baikonur spaceport just after the takeoff on July 2, 2013. Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin reported that the booster got off the launch pad 0,4 seconds earlier, but that was not the cause of crash. According to him Investigative commission is likely to reveal the cause this month.
