Brazil hosts Russian satellite navigation system
Brazil hosts first Russian satellite navigation system outside Russia
Deputy Head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Sergey Saveliev, talks on the phone with his agency's base in Russia during a ceremony to inaugurate a station that will use Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, or GLONASS, at the University of Brasilia in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. On Wednesday, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will visit the station. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil has become the first country outside Russia to host part of that nation's satellite navigation system, which is known as Glonass.
The Brazilian Space Agency says Tuesday on its website that the system is similar to the Global Positioning System of the United States.
The agency and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos will operate the system installed at the University of Brasilia.
Glonass uses 24 satellites to provide navigation services worldwide.
The website quotes space agency president Jose Raimundo Coelho as saying the "partnership will help prepare qualified Brazilian professionals and give the Russians a more efficient system."
He says the Glonass system can also be used by the university to conduct aerospace and biomedical research.
