The Russian Aerospace Force successfully put a Glonass-M navigation satellite into orbit on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

A Soyuz-2.1B carrier rocket blasted off from northwest Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 9:23 am Moscow time (0623 GMT), and the satellite has been working normally in space, it said.

Glonass is a global navigation system operated by the Russian Aerospace Force for both military and civilian use.

It is a Russian equivalent to the US Global Positioning System and China's BeiDou navigation system, providing real-time positioning and speed data for land, sea and airborne receivers worldwide.