Where Are We? - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 176

Other navigation satellite systems being developed are regional in scope.
The Japanese government in 2002 authorized the Quasi-Zenith Satellite Sys-
tem (qzss), led initially by a group of businesses that later pulled out of the
project and were replaced in 2007 by the government-sponsored Japanese
Aerospace Exploration Agency. 233 It launched one satellite in 2010, plans three
more launches by the end of the decade, and envisions a constellation of seven
satellites eventually. 234 The government accelerated development in fall 2011,
apparently motivated by the earthquake and tsunami. 235 The system's name
derives from its highly elliptical orbits, which will keep three satellites over
Japan more than twelve hours a day and at least one almost directly overhead
at most times. 236 This placement facilitates better visibility for car navigation
in the urban canyons of Japanese cities. 237 Japan also operates the Multifunc-
tional Transport Satellite Augmentation System (msas), which, like waas and
egnos, uses satellites to transmit signals enhanced by a network of ground
reference stations. 238 It became operational in 2007. 239
Less than a week after Russia offered India a joint development stake in
upgrading glonass, India announced that it would launch in 2013 the first of
seven satellites for its Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (irnss). 240
Although the two nations entered discussions at the end of 2010 about closer
ties between their programs, it is unclear how India will proceed. 241 Indian
media have tended to highlight ending dependence on gps and to overlook
irnss's regional limitations with such headlines as “Scientists Excited about
India's Own gps.” 242 The government began the program in 2006, and the
Indian Space Research Organization expects to complete the constellation in
2014, although the original first launch was supposed to occur in 201 2. 243 irnss
will have a different architecture from any other gnss. Three satellites will have
geostationary orbits, traveling at the same rate as the earth's rotation, so they
will appear fixed in the sky like those used for satellite television. The other
four will have geosynchronous orbits, circling the earth in twenty-four hours,
but because they will be inclined twenty-nine degrees from the equator, their
movement in the sky will resemble a figure eight. 244 This arrangement will keep
all seven satellites visible in the Indian region twenty-four hours a day. 245 India,
too, is developing a space-based augmentation system. The gps- Aided Geo-
Augmented Navigation system, or gagan, will consist of three geostationary
satellites linked to a network of ground stations, which are in their final testing
phase. 246 After an initial launch failed in 2010, India placed the first gagan
satellite in orbit in May 2011 and the second in September 2012. 247