Date of orbiting Glonass satellite to be set after next launch from Plesetsk

The date of launching another satellite Glonass-M will be set after the next launch from the Plesetsk space site in the Arkhangelsk Region, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.

"The date of orbiting Glonass-M will be determined after the forthcoming launch from Plesetsk. It may be expected on October 30," the source said.

At the moment specialists are making preparations at the cosmodrome. The previous launch of a Glonass-M satellite was on June 17.

Earlier a number of mass media said that a military satellite would be orbited from Plesetsk on October 25 or 26, and a Glonass-M satellite, on November 3 - both with Soyuz-2.1b rockets.

The Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev company earlier addressed the corporation Roscosmos with a proposal for orbiting a Glonass-M satellite from Plesetsk in November 2018, but Roscosmos and the Defense Ministry have not made up their mind yet. Currently five Glonass-M satellites are in the reserve on the ground. Nine satellites Glonass-K1 are in the manufacturing phase. Three installments three satellites in each are to be delivered in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Also, the Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev keeps working on multifunctional next generation satellites Glonass-K2. Their launches are due next year.

Currently, the GLONASS cluster consists of 26 satellites: 24 are in use, one is undergoing maintenance and another one is in the test flight phase. According to earlier reports global coverage will require 24 operational GLONASS satellites, including 18 covering the territory of Russia.