Russia launched its Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying the GLONASS-K navigation system on Monday from a northern cosmodrome, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the defence ministry.

"Combat crews of the Space Forces .... successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1b medium-class launch vehicle with space navigation GLONASS-K system," the agency cited the ministry as saying.

The GLONASS-K satellite lifted off on the Soyuz rocket at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 km (500 miles) north of Moscow, Reuters reported.

GLONASS-K is a navigation satellite intended as a part of the Russian GLONASS radio-based satellite navigation system. Russia has spent billions of dollars in the past two decades on developing the GLONASS system seen as a potential rival to the U.S. global positioning system (GPS).

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