By Ria Novosti. Moscow, Russia, 07:22 PM IST

Moscow, June 11 (RIA Novosti) Russia is set to launch its first weather satellite, Meteor-M1, in the fourth quarter of 2008, the satellite's manufacturer said Wednesday.

Russia currently has no weather satellites and gets its information from foreign sources.

The Russian state research and development company VNIIEM said its specialists had assembled the satellite and launched 'the final stage of complex tests'.

The 2.7-tonne Meteor-M1 will be put into a 830-km orbit by a Soyuz-2 launch vehicle and a Frigate upper stage.

Its service life will be five to seven years.

By Ria Novosti (Staff Writer, © IANS)