Soyuz space rocket with Glonass-M navigation satellite to blast off from Plesetsk Monday

MOSCOW, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - The carrier rocket Soyuz-2.1b with a Glonass-M navigation satellite is due to blast off from Plesetsk space launch center on Monday, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, a spokesman for the Air and Space Defence Forces in the RF Defence Ministry's press service, told Itar-Tass early Monday. "The space rocket Soyuz-2.1b with a Glonass-M spacecraft is to be launched from Site 43 of the Plesetsk spaceport at 02:54, Moscow time," Zolotukhin specified. The Glonasss-M satellite Number 54 is due to separate from the acceleration unit Fregat at 06:26, Moscow time, he added. Specialists of the Reshetnev "Information Satellite Systems" Company have installed an additional equipment - a high-precision thermostabilization module - on board the spacecraft. The module is to undergo testing in orbit. The device is to be installed on board spacecraft of a next-generation GLONASS system with a view to raising the accuracy of navigation. The carrier rocket Soyuz 2.1b belongs to the family of three-stage medium-class vehicles developed at the Central specialised design bureau (TSSKB)-Progress on the basis of the Soyuz U through an in-depth modernization.