Article Posted on : - Oct 22, 2009

MOSCOW (BNS): Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos has deferred the launch of three GLONASS navigation satellites till February 2010 "to carry out more work to improve their reliability," it said on Thursday.

The space agency had fixed the satellites� launch date on October 29 after postponing it in September due to technical reasons.

It had targeted to complete the GLONASS grouping of 24 satellites required for worldwide services by launching six of them by this year end.

GLONASS � Global Navigation Satellite System � is an alternative and complementary system to the US� Global Positioning System, China�s Compass navigation system, and the planned Galileo positioning system of the European Union.

Designed for both military and civilian purposes, GLONASS enables its users to determine their positions within a few meters.

The system requires 18 satellites for continuous navigation services covering the entire Russian Federation, and 24 satellites to provide services worldwide.