Posted: Mon, Dec 1, 2014, 7:44 AM ET (1244 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket successfully launched a GLONASS navigation satellite early Monday. The Soyuz 2-1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 4:52 pm EST Sunday (2152 GMT Sunday, 12:52 am Moscow time Monday) carrying a GLONASS K-1 navigation satellite. Russian officials said the launch was successful. The satellite is the second in a new series of GLONASS satellites that will eventually replace the existing GLONASS-M satellites. The GLONASS-K satellites are lighter and have a longer lifetime than earlier GLONASS satellites.
