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Another Trio of Russian Navigation Satellites Orbited by Proton
By Associated Press
posted: 07:00 am ET
11 December 2003
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MOSCOWMOSCOW (AP) -- Russia has launched a rocket carrying three unmanned spacecraft that were to replenish the nation's satellite navigation system, according to the Interfax news agency. The Proton K rocket lifted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:42 p.m. EST (1742 GMT) Wednesday, carrying three Kosmos space vehicles, Interfax reported. It said the launch would add satellites to the Russian military's GLONASS satellite navigation system -- the equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said Russian space forces planned to conduct 35 satellite launches this year in an effort to speed up modernization of the nation's satellite fleet. Officials have particularly mentioned the need to modernize GLONASS. Developed during the 1970s, the system originally had 24 satellites, but the number has dwindled. Russian Aerospace Agency chief Yuri Koptev warned last year that Russia was on the brink of losing GLONASS, which the military needs to obtain essential navigation services.
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