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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Countdown begins for launch of India’s final navigation satellite
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Countdown begins for launch of India’s final navigation satellite

Isro will launch IRNSS-1G on board PSLV-C33 at 12:30pm on Thursday

A file photo of Isro’s sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F lift off from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Photo: PTI/IsroPremium
A file photo of Isro’s sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F lift off from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Photo: PTI/Isro

New Delhi: India will launch a seventh and final satellite on Thursday to complete a network in space providing regional satellite navigation, a development that promises to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign systems.

Countdown for the launch began at 9.20am on Tuesday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch the satellite on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C33), the workhorse rocket of the Indian space agency, at 12:30pm on Thursday. The rocket has already been filled with propellant, the space agency said.

The satellite IRNSS-1G is part of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), which will partially reduce the country’s dependence on the US global positioning system (GPS) and the Russian global navigation satellite system (GLONASS).

IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India consisting of a constellation of seven satellites. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.

The IRNSS is expected to provide a positional accuracy of better than 20 metres in the primary service area. Three satellites are to be placed in suitable slots in the geostationary orbit, a circular orbit 35,786km above the equator and the remaining four will be placed in geosynchronous, elliptical orbits designed to keep communication satellites within the view of ground stations.

The system will provide two types of services including Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to authorized users. Some of the applications provided by the IRNSS would be terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.

After the launch of a navigational satellite, its solar panels are deployed automatically, and Isro’s master control facility at Hassan, Karnataka, takes control of the satellite.

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Published: 26 Apr 2016, 05:06 PM IST
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