Russia has successfully launched Glonass-M positioning satellite on board of Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket from the Plesetsk space center.
The GLONASS (Russian acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System) network provides real-time positioning data for surface, sea and airborne objects around the globe, at an accuracy reportedly on par with the U.S. Global Positioning System.
With this launch, there are now 26 Glonass satellites in orbit.
It was built by Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (formerly NPO-PM). It has design life of 7 years which is significantly higher than that of previous generation of Glonass satellites.
The heart of the satellite is Caesium atomic clock that provides accurate timing reference needed to generate navigation data.
Glonass is Russian Satellite Navigation System considered as counterpart to GPS of US, Galileo of European Union (EU) and Beidou of China.