You might remember the upset a few months ago when the U.S. refused to place any Russian GLONASS stations on American soil, stating formally that they didn’t feel the need to help GLONASS compete with GPS, and informally that it was a national security threat as the bases could be used for other purposes.
Well, last week RIA Novosti reported that Russia has decided not to pursue the matter further at the moment, and negotiations regarding the placement of a station in Alaska will not be renewed.
“Order 40-50 stations planned for placement around the world. As for the United States, we now consider the option of placing a station in Alaska, but the lack of it does not significantly affect the performance of our system,” said First Deputy General Designer of “Russian Space Systems” Grigory Stupak. He went on to remind everyone that Russia already has several other stations around the world, including one in Cuba, South Africa, Brazil and Antartica, with several more planned in various countries like China.
