Russia's Roscosmos space agency may launch up to four Glonass navigation satellites in 2017, Deputy Director General for Automatic Space Complexes Mikhail Khailov said on Monday. According to him, the launches will be carried out if operating satellites are out of order.

"It is planned to carry out up to four launches [of Glonass satellites] in 2017 ... We will carry them out only when necessary, including the use of the Proton rocket," Khailov said at the meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG).

The ICG meeting, organized by Roscosmos, is taking place on November 6-11 in Russia's southern city of Sochi.

GLONASS, Norinco Sign Memorandum on Project to Create Navigation Chipset
Strelna (Sputnik) Nov 08 - Russia's GLONASS nonprofit partnership and the China North Industries Corporation (Norinco) signed a memorandum of understanding on the project to create a Russian-Chinese navigation chipset.

The document was signed following a regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese prime ministers.

The document was signed by GLONASS Executive Director Alexander Bondarenko and Norinco President Wen Gang, following a regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese prime ministers.

The new chipset will be designed primarily for professional applications, namely telematics boxes, ERA-GLONASS and eCall systems, in order to control various vehicles. GLONASS and Norinco have been discussing the issue since 2015.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang met on Monday in St. Petersburg to discuss trade and investment ties, as well as cooperation in oil, gas and nuclear industries.

Source: Sputnik News