Achieving full orbital constellation
In the early 1980s, NPO PM received the first prototype satellites from PO Polyot for ground tests. Many of the produced parts were of low quality and NPO PM engineers had to perform substantial redesigning, leading to a delay.[4] On 12 October 1982, three satellites, designated Kosmos-1413, Kosmos-1414, and Kosmos-1415 were launched aboard a Proton rocket. As only one GLONASS satellite was ready in time for the launch instead of the expected three, it was decided to launch it along with two mock-ups. The USA media reported the event as a launch of one satellite and "two secret objects." For a long time, the USA could not find out the nature of those "objects". The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) covered the launch, describing GLONASS as a system "created to determine positioning of civil aviation aircraft, navy transport and fishing-boats of the Soviet Union".[4]
From 1982 to April 1991, the Soviet Union successfully launched a total of 43 GLONASS-related satellites plus five test satellites. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, twelve GLONASS satellites in two planes were operational; enough to allow limited use of the system (to cover the entire territory of the Union, 18 satellites would have been necessary.) The Russian Federation took over control of the constellation and continued its development.[5] In 1993, the system, now consisting of 12 satellites, was formally declared operational[7] and in December 1995 it was brought to a fully operational constellation of 24 satellites. This brought the precision of GLONASS on a par with the USA GPS system, which had achieved full operation а year earlier