Russia launched its Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the GLONASS-K navigation system on Monday from a cosmodrome in the north of the country, the Interfax news agency reported, based on information from the Defense Ministry.

“Space Forces combat crews … successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1b medium-class launch vehicle with the GLONASS-K space navigation system,” the agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The GLONASS-K satellite took off aboard the Soyuz rocket at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 km north of Moscow.

GLONASS-K is a navigation satellite intended to be part of the Russian GLONASS radio navigation system. Russia has spent billions of dollars over the past two decades developing the GLONASS system, seen as a potential rival to the US global positioning system (GPS).