Surprising the world, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted its historic 100th launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on Wednesday (January 29) morning.
According to the ISRO, GSLV-F15 with NVS-02 satellite lifted off from the second launch pad of the spaceport at 6.23 am Indian local time and 19 minutes later GSLV-F15 with indigenous cryogenic stage placed the NVS-02 satellite into a Geosynchronous (orbit type) transfer orbit.
After the successful launch of the NVS-02 satellite, ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan said, “I am delighted to announce from ISRO’s spaceport that the first launch of this year has been successfully completed by GSLV-F15, placing the NVS-02 satellite into orbit.” This mission is our 100th launch from here. This is a significant milestone for our space program.”
Dr. Narayanan, who took charge of the Indian Space Agency on 13th January, 2025, added that over these 100 launches, ISRO has put 548 satellites into orbit. And we will lift a total of 120 tons of payload, including 23 tons for 433 foreign satellites”.
What is NavIC?
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, NavIC is India’s independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide accurate position, velocity, and time (PVT) services to users in India and the region, and its primary service area extends about 1,500 km beyond the country’s landmass.
According to the ISRO Data, NavIC provides two types of services, namely Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS). The standard positioning service provides a position accuracy of better than 20 meters and a timing accuracy of better than 40 nanoseconds in the primary service area.
ISRO also said, “Five second-generation NavIC satellites, NVS-01/02/03/04/05 are envisaged to augment the NavIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) base layer constellation with enhanced features for ensuring continuity of services. The NVS series of satellites incorporates L1 band signals additionally to widen the services.”
“NVS-01, the first of the second-generation satellites was launched onboard GSLV-F12 on May 29, 2023,” ISRO added.
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