On December 5, 2010 at 10:25 UTC the "Proton-M” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket-carrier with upper DM-3 booster was to orbit three Glonass-M satellites.
Being in flight, the "Proton-M” rocket-carrier deviated from its course to 8 degrees, which resulted later in a loss of three satellites. Three Glonass-M satellites fell into a non-navigational area of the Pacific Ocean in some 1500 kilometers northwest of the city of Honolulu, administrative center of the state of Hawaii, USA.
Glonass is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. 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.
Russia currently has a total of 26 Glonass satellites in orbit, but three of them are not operational. The three Glonass-M satellites would have allowed Russia to operate a complete Glonass network of 24 operational satellites and would have had several satellites in reserve. Attachments: | 
