MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will launch a new satellite for the GLONASS navigation system from its northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome in June, a senior Russian space agency official said Wednesday.
“The next launch of a GLONASS-M [satellite] is scheduled for June 14 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,” Roscosmos deputy chief Anatoly Shilov told an international navigation forum in Moscow.
The Global Navigation Satellite System, which came online in 1993, is a Russian equivalent to the US Global Positioning System (GPS). The GLONASS network provides real-time positioning and speed data for land, sea and airborne receivers.
The constellation of 24 operational GLONASS satellites provides navigational coverage to the entire globe.