26 Aug 2015 18:16

Service life of 8 GLONASS satellites has expired - design company

ZHUKOVSKY. Aug 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The service life of around eight GLONASS satellites now in orbit has expired, Nikolai Testoyedov, CEO of Information Satellite Systems (ISS), the designer of the GLONASS system, announced at the MAKS 2015 international aerospace show.

"Eight GLONASS satellites have lived beyond the limits of their planned active existence but still function normally," he said to reporters on Wednesday.

The service life of satellites was around five years when GLONASS was being developed, he said. However, it was continously remarked that satellites of the U.S. GPS system function for 20 years and these remarks were taken into account in designing GLONASS satellites.