Sriharikota: India moved tantalisingly close to having its own satellite navigation system as it smoothly launched a satellite with its rocket — and is now only a step away from joining a select group of space-faring nations that have such a system.
With the successful launch early yesterday of the third of seven satellites planned under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), India is just a satellite and a couple of months away from having its own satellite navigation system. This puts India at the door step of an exclusive space club that has the US, Russia, China and Japan as members.
The navigational system, developed indigenously by India, is designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500km from the nation’s boundary line. Though IRNSS is a seven-satellite system, it could be made operational with four satellites, ISRO officials said. The fourth navigation satellite is expected to be launched this December. The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed by 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists and described the launch earlier in the night as “a matter of immense pride and joy”. Exactly at 1.32am, the rocket — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C26 (PSLV-C26) — standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes, blasted off from the first launch pad here at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The rocket tore into the night skies with its luggage, the 1,425kg IRNSS-1C satellite. At around 20 minutes into the flight, the PSLV-C26 spat out IRNSS-1C at an altitude of around 500 km above the earth. “India’s third navigation satellite is up in the orbit,” ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said. The satellite has two kinds of payloads — navigation and ranging. The navigation payload would transmit navigation service signals to the users. A highly accurate rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload. The ranging payload consists of C-band transponder which facilitates accurate determination of he range of the satellite.
The satellite with a life span of around 10 years is the third of the seven satellites which will constitute the IRNSS. The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013 and the second IRNSS-1B in April 2014. Both have already started functioning from their designated orbital slots. IANS
