Ouch! Three Russian GLONASS satellites carried atop a Proton rocket (pictured above) crashed into the Pacific after veering off course by eight degrees. It is believed that they went down near Hawaii. Apparently rocket separation failed to occur until a higher than planned altitude.
Via Groundspeak and @PocketGPSWorld
EDITED to add Wikipedia link.
About Rich Owings
Sorry, but this kind of makes me smile. Cant help it. The Russians are not our friends and take every oppurtunity they get to make problems for us and the rest of the democratic world. So, call me scrooge, but Ha Ha Russia.
Maybe it makes you smile, Rick, but it seems to me that we could all benefit by having additional satellites overhead for wider and more accurate coverage. As it is, the whole world relies primarily on our GPS system paid for with our tax dollars.
Save us the “democracy and freedom” bullsht….the US causes more incidences and issues around the world than any other country…so do us all a favor and don’t preach about how righteous you are and everyone else is so evil.
Noz,
To bring it to your level…..bite me. Sorry you hate America so much. Flights leaving every day. Get on one.
It’s not that I hate America…it’s just that I think people like you are so freaking ignorant…it’s truly embarrassing
Yeah let me think about what country I can go to that you’ve not fked up. Give me a few days. I’ll get back to your sorry derriere.
Well John,
Your right. The difference is that i highly doubt that Russia will provide the same services for free that our government has for how many years now? It has always struck me how our govt provides this service to world wide at no charge. Comapanies like Garmin, Tomtom, etc seem to benefit the most. They dont contribute to the transmitting infrastructure, yet make millions selling us the hardware/software to take advantage of it. Wouldnt it be like the US govt. contructing/maintaining all the cell phone towers in the world so that cell phone companies can sell us the devices/software to take advange of the transmitted signals? What would be the difference? Ah, but i digress. Anyway, if i understand Glonass, it (orbit pattern) is aimed primarily at the Asian continent, so i doubt we would see much benefit from it anyway. It isnt like me to wish bad luck on someone, only our enemies. If you think they are our friends, you are mistaken. GPS accuracy is pretty darn good. How good do you and i really need it?
Rick
GNSS can be receieve all over the world.
Also there is a similar project being done by the EU called Galileo, unfortuantely they’re tied up in bureaucracy and don’t have much going on. The GNSS system is actually far superior to the GPS system and any decent, new, receiver should include both GPS and GNSS capabilities.
The addition of the GNSS satellites to the positioning constellation has drastically improved the both the quality and the effiency of RTK GPS here in North America.
However the REASON that Russia is sending up a constellation is so that, in the event of a military shut down by the US of the GPS constellation, unlikely at this point but entirely possible, they will still have a postioning constellation in effect.
Further, despite the menial tasks of finding your way to the closest McDick’s, GPS and GNSS have become paramount in securing property laws with quick positioning and property corner placement. Real property laws are fundamental in the development of less fortunate countries above these laws is the ability to accurately determine the location of the parcel. In short, this crash is a blow to world econmy, the US included.
You say GNASS is “far a superior sytem to the GPS system”. Please explain. Thanks
Hey folks, I don’t have to do a lot of heavy handed comment moderation here, and I hope to keep it that way. About a third of the visitors to this site come from outside the US. Please be respectful of each other so I don’t have to turn off comments on this post.
My apologies Rich.
Rick
Let’s not confuse GNSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_navigation_satellite_system) with GLONASS.
Rich,
I apologize also but I can’t stand ignorant xenophobic comments from people who think they are actually living in a democracy and that there’s is better than everyone else’s…I guess if you’re comparing to N. Korea….they may be right.
I’m not sure where to draw the line between healthy geopolitical discussion and sniping, but I don’t want it go further. Closing comments.