The Russian space agency has successfully launched three GLONASS navigation satellites on Thursday. The satellites were launched on Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket at 4:53 Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket’s DM-2 upper stage completed satellite lofting operations at 0826 am, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Two of the satellites will be operational in October and one will be kept in reserve. The country has a total of 22 Glonass satellites in orbit out of which 16 are operational. In order to cover the whole country the system will use 18 satellites and 24 satellites to provide worldwide services.

Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System is an alternative to the US’ Global Positioning System, China’s Compass navigation system and the under development Galileo positioning system of the European Union. GLONASS has been designed for both military and civilian purposes.