ATC
Global Satellite Navigation Inching Closer to Full Implementation
Four constellations will be complete by 2020.

By 2020, four separate GPS-like constellations of navigation satellites forming the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) will be circling the earth, operated separately by the U.S. (GPS), Europe (Galileo), Russia (Glonass) and China (BeiDou/Compass). Each constellation will be made up of between 24 and 36 individual satellites, with the four constellations well separated in altitude between 10,000 nm and 12,500 nm above the earth’s surface. Each constellation’s satellites will transmit their navigation and other data on its own dedicated, and occasionally encrypted, UHF frequencies, although all four constellations and their satellites have a common “open” frequency for future inter-constellation applications.