Russian satellites,Glonass, rescheduled for Oct. 29

The launch of three Glonass navigation satellites postponed last month due to technical glitch is rescheduled for October 29, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said Monday.

"This launch is in our plans. The expected date is October 29," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.

The launch, originally scheduled for September 25 from the Baikonurspace center in Kazakhstan, was postponed because of a malfunction in one of the Glonass-M satellites currently in orbit.

All six Glonass satellites required to complete the Glonass satellite grouping will be launched by the end of this year, head of the Roscosmos Anatoly Perminov said earlier.

Glonass, a Global Navigation Satellite System, is the Russian version of the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.

The Glonass project requires 24 satellites to provide navigation services worldwide, but currently has only 18 satellites in orbit that cover the entire Russian territory.