Abstract
<jats:p>One of the most important navigation parameters determining the location of a spacecraft in orbit is the range of the spacecraft. Researchers from different countries are engaged in the task of range high-precision measurement of a spacecraft but have not received a detailed consideration of the processes occurring during digital unsynchronized multiple measurement of the duration of time intervals of the same source, and to date, the participation of group sources in assessing the range of a spacecraft has not received due attention from researchers. The article discusses a method for multichannel range measurement of a spacecraft, which allows increasing accuracy by eliminating influencing factors when averaging an ensemble of measurements. The increase is possible if the Earth's ellipticity is taken into account when averaging the ensemble of ranges, since the position of each Earth station is known before the satellite telecommunications system is put into operation, then during the pre-launch preparation of the spacecraft this allows accumulating the calculated correction values in the memory of the ground control complex and averaging the corrected values and periodic drift of the spacecraft. Calculations show, using the phase method of range measurement, that in any positions of the spacecraft, regardless of the instantaneous value of its speed in two adjacent measurement intervals, the variable component of the phase incursion is an approximately linear value. The considered method of averaging the results of group measurements of the range of the spacecraft as part of the satellite telecommunications system, taking into account the necessary correction of individual results, demonstrably ensures an increase in the accuracy of range measurement of the spacecraft proportional to the number of Earth stations in the system.</jats:p>