ISRO Successfully Launches Next-Gen Navigational Satellite

Taking an important step towards advancing India's navigation technology and strengthening its NavIC system, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched the first of its second-generation navigation satellite series from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, on Monday.

This mission is ISRO's fifth launch this year after the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) launch in February, LVM3 M3/OneWeb India-2 mission in March and the PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 mission in April. India is the fourth country to have its own navigation systems - the United States, Russia and China being the only other such countries.

This satellite GSLV NVS-1 NavIC is part of the NavIC series, a constellation of satellites designed to enhance monitoring and navigation capabilities. NVS-01 marks the beginning of the second-generation satellites in the NavIC series, intending to improve services and introduce innovative features to the system.

This mission is designed to deploy the NVS-01 navigation satellite, weighing about 2,232 kg, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Subsequent orbit-raising maneuvers will be used for taking the satellite to the intended orbit. NVS-01 is the first of the second-generation satellites envisaged for Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) services.

The 51.7-metre tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, on its 15th flight, carried the navigation satellite NVS-01 weighing 2,232 kg on Monday at 10.42 am from the launch pad at SHAR, about 130 km from Chennai.

Nearly 20 minutes after the flight, the rocket is scheduled to deploy the satellite in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) at an altitude of about 251 km, ISRO said in a statement immediately after the launch.

This marks a return to flight mission carrying the next generation NavIC satellite that will replace the IRNSS-1G satellite launched in 2016. NavIC is a constellation of seven satellites offering the standard position service for civilian users and restricted service for strategic users.

Three satellites of the constellation are placed in the geostationary orbit and four satellites in the inclined geosynchronous orbit. The ground network consists of a control centre, range and integrity monitoring stations and two-way ranging stations.

NavIC signals covering 1,500 km around India are designed to provide user position accuracy better than 20 metres and timing accuracy better than 50 nanoseconds. The mission is expected to immensely augment ISRO's navigation capabilities.

ISRO's aim is to launch the next series of NavIC satellites, which are new generation navigation satellites with features like the L1 band (the civilian mobile band), this year. This series incorporates L1 band signals additionally to widen the services. For the first time, an indigenous atomic clock are flown in NVS-01. To meet the positioning, navigation and timing requirements of the nation, ISRO has established two services under the NavIC system - Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian users and Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users.