MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is getting ready to launch the second of its new-generation GLONASS-K navigation satellites, which is due to take off from the Plesetsk spaceport in Arkhangelsk region on December 1, an Aerospace Defense Forces spokesman said on Monday.
"December 1 has been set as the optimum date for launching the GLONASS-K space vehicle for putting it in a spot that is as close to its designated orbital position as possible," Col. Alexei Zolutukhin told Interfax-AVN.
The satellite will be taken to orbit by a Soyuz-2.16b rocket.
Third-generation GLONASS-K satellites would replace the GLONASS-M satellites making up Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system. The first GLONASS-K satellite was launched in February 2011 as a test.
Zolotukhin said Plesetsk personnel had finished fueling the carrier rocket's Fregat upper stage and testing its fuel tanks, onboard sensors, engines and control systems, and had transported the Fregat from the fueling station to a launch pad.
"In the assembly and testing unit of the technical complex, Plesetsk spaceport specialists are finishing the technological operations of assembling and testing principal units of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket, the Fregat upper stage and the GLONASS-K space vehicle," he said.
After the assembly work is over and hydraulic circuits, pneumatic umbilicals and electric systems are connected, all of the rocket's system will be tested separately and then in combination with those of the payload stage, the spokesman said.
The latest GLONASS satellite to be put in orbit was launched from Plesetsk on June 14, 2014.
Plesetsk started being used for GLONASS launches on February 26, 2011, when the first GLONASS-K went into space, being also the first satellite to be put in orbit by a Soyuz-2.1b.
Until then all GLONASS missions had started at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the satellites being carried to orbit by Proton heavy rockets.