MOSCOW, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia launched three more satellites on Monday to join its Glonass global navigation system.

    A Proton-K rocket carrying the three Glonass satellites blasted off at 23:18 Moscow time (2018 GMT) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, news agencies Interfax and Itar-Tass reported quoting space officials.

    Currently, the Glonass system has 14 satellites operating in orbit. It needs 18 satellites to cover the whole territory of Russia, and a further 6 satellites are needed for it to cover the whole globe.

    Glonass is expected to be operational on the national scale by the end of 2007 and on the global scale by the end of 2009.

    The Defense Ministry has earlier lifted all limits on access to the data and images made from satellite navigation systems.