MOSCOW. Sept 25 (Interfax-AVN) - A Proton rocket will add another three Glonass-M satellites to the navigation satellite cluster in December.
"The launch is due after December 20. A final decision about the launch date will be made by the state commission by December," Federal Space Agency spokesman Alexander Vorobyov told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
A Proton-M rocket carrying three Glonass-M satellites was launched from the Kazakh Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:49 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday. The booster and the three satellites separated from the rocket at 12:59 p.m.
The satellites are due to reach the designated orbit at 4:21 p.m. They will become operational after tests one or two months from now.
Currently, 14 Glonass satellites (one Glonass and 13 Glonass-M) are operational. Another Glonass satellite is under maintenance.