In a similar vein to Europe’s EGNOS satellite navigation overlay system, to improve the accuracy and availabilty of GPS navigation signals in Japan, the Cabinet Office of the Japanese government has announced that has planned a $525 million contract with the Japanese spacecraft manufacturer Mitsibushi to build three new satellites as part of its Quasi-Zenith programme. The three satellites will form a constelaltion of four with the first Quasi-Zenith (Mischibiki) satellite (QZS-1) which is already in orbit after being launched in 2010.
Two of the L-band signal broadcasting satellites will be in inclined orbits with a third will be in a conventional geostationary orbit. All three satellites will be launched before 2018 and will will be operated by NEC Corp subsidiary 15 years under a $1.2 billion design and service contract.
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