MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2020) The launch of Russia's next-generation Glonass-K navigation satellite, which has been postponed several times, is being rescheduled from October 16 to October 25, a space industry source told Sputnik.
"The start of Glonass-K has been moved to October 25," the source said without specifying the reasons behind the postponement.
Last month, Nikolay Testoyedov, the director general of Russian satellite maker ISS-Reshetnev (Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Company) told Sputnik that the launch of Glonass-K was planned for October 16.
The Glonass-K satellite, the third Russian navigation satellite of the type, is planned to be launched using the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper-stage booster. The satellite's launch has been postponed several times since March, amid production delays.
The first Glonass-K satellite was launched in February 2011, while the second one was launched in December 2014.
There are currently 27 satellites in the Russian Glonass constellation, 24 of them are operational. In February, spokesperson of Russian satellite maker ISS-Reshetnev said that nine next-generation Glonass-K satellites would be added to the constellation by 2022.
