Yury Nosenko, deputy head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), said the satellite is currently undergoing flight tests and that a ground-based satellite data processing and distribution center should be up and running by March.

He said the geosynchronous satellite Elektro-L, which will "hang" above the Indian Ocean, is to be launched in November.

At present, Russia

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has no weather satellites of its own, and has to rely on foreign spacecraft for meteorological data.

Three out of four transmitters aboard the Meteor-3M satellite broke down in late 2003, just two years after the satellite's launch, and ground control stopped receiving signals.

The Russian government previously said it will restore the network of weather satellites it had in Soviet times, which could monitor conditions across the country's 11 time zones.

MOSCOW, February 6 (RIA Novosti)