A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket will deliver three Glonass-M satellites into the orbit on Sunday, completing the forming of the global navigation system, a representative of Russian space agency Roscosmos has said.
The rocket will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 03:25pm local time (10:25 GMT), he said.
Glonass is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.
Russia currently has a total of 26 Glonass satellites in orbit, but three of them are not operational. The three Glonass-M satellites to be put into orbit on Sunday will allow Russia to operate a complete Glonass network of 24 operational satellites and have several satellites in reserve.
The three satellites are planned to be put into operation in about 6 weeks. RIA Novosti
