Russia successfully launches a satellite for navigation: The GLONASS-K navigation system launched by Russia on Monday from a cosmodrome in the north, according to the Interfax news agency and the defense ministry.
According to the ministry, “Combat crews of the Space Forces successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1b medium-class launch vehicle with the space navigation GLONASS-K system.”
Approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Moscow, the GLONASS-K satellite launch aboard a Soyuz rocket at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
The Russian GLONASS radio-based satellite navigation system will include the navigation satellite GLONASS-K. The GLONASS system, developed by Russia over the last two decades and viewed as a possible competitor to the American global positioning system, has cost billions of dollars (GPS).
