The experimental satellite, Giove-B, was put into orbit by a Soyuz carrier rocket launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in the early hours on Sunday, Roscosmos said.
"The foreign satellite separated from the Russian Fregat acceleration unit at the designated time and the space vehicle was transferred to the customer for control," Roscosmos said.
The Galileo new positioning and communications system will eventually comprise 30 satellites and is expected to become operational from 2013.
Galileo will be Europe's own global navigation satellite system, providing highly accurate global positioning service under civilian control. It will operate along with Russia's GLONASS (global navigation satellite system) and the U.S. GPS (Global Positioning System).
