ISRO hits ton in style with successful navigation sat mission

Sriharikota, (Andhra Pradesh) Jan 29 (PTI) In its historic 100th mission on Wednesday, ISRO successfully launched an advanced navigation satellite that would aid in terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation and precision agriculture, among others.

The early morning launch was the first under ISRO Chairman V Narayanan’s leadership–he assumed office on January 16– and also the space agency’s maiden venture in 2025. ISRO had earlier successfully demonstrated a space docking experiment that was launched on December 30, 2024, making it the space agency’s 99th mission.

Narayanan said he was extremely happy to announce that ISRO’s first venture in 2025 was a success.

The satellite was “precisely injected into the required (GTO) orbit. This mission is the 100th launch which is a very significant milestone,” he said in his address post the successful launch.

“In this mission, the data has come; all vehicle systems are normal,” Narayanan added.

Earlier, as the 27.30-hour countdown concluded, the 50.9 tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, emanating thick fumes on its tail lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at a prefixed time of 6.23 am on Wednesday.

After travelling for about 19 minutes in dark and cloudy skies, the rocket successfully separated its payload, the NVS-02 navigation satellite into the desired Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

The satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass.

The GSLV-F15 follows the GSLV-F12 mission which successfully carried NVS-01, the first of the second generation navigation satellites on May 29, 2023.

The key applications of the NVs-02 satellite are terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation, precision agriculture, fleet management, location based services in mobile devices, orbit determination for satellites, Internet-of-Things (IoT) based applications and emergency and timing services, ISRO said.

NavIC comprises five second generation satellites–NVS-01/02/03/04/05 envisaged to augment NavIC base layer constellation with enhanced features for ensuring continuity of services.

The NVS-02 satellite designed and developed by Bengaluru-based U R Rao Satellite Centre weighs about 2,250 kg. It has navigation payload in L1, L5 and S bands and employs a Tri-band antenna.

The heart of the navigation payload is the Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard (RAFS), an atomic clock which acts as a stable frequency reference for the navigation payload.

The ranging payload consists of a CxC transponder used for two-way CDMA ranging to facilitate precise orbit determination, ISRO said.

Narayanan, detailing ISRO’s journey, recalled the space mission being nurtured under the leadership of the legendary Vikram Sarabhai.

ISRO has so far developed six generations of launch vehicles, the first one being under Satish Dhawan, and former President, the late APJ Abdul Kalam as its project director, he said.

It was SLV-3 E1/Rohini Technology payload that was launched on August 10, 1979.

Since then, over these 100 launches, ISRO has ‘lifted’ 548 satellites to the orbit, including those for foreign clients, Narayanan added.

During this period, several milestone launches have been done, including the three Chandrayaan missions, the missions to Mars and Sun among others, the Secretary, Department of Space, said.