ISRO launches 100th landmark mission, GSLV-F15 lifts off with NVS-02 to improve India's navigational system

A GSLV rocket carrying navigation satellite NVS-02 lifted off from this spaceport on Wednesday, marking ISRO's 100th mission. The mission was also the first for the space agency's Chairman V Narayanan, who assumed office recently. It is ISRO's maiden venture this year.

ISRO's 100th landmark mission launch | Watch video  

As the 27.30 hour countdown concluded, the 50.9 metre tall rocket, emanating thick fumes on its tail, lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at a prefixed time of 6.23 am today from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F15) follows the GSLV-F12 mission which successfully carried navigation satellite NVS-01, the first of the second generation satellites on May 29, 2023.

The key applications of the satellite would be 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.

India's navigational system will improve 

Earlier, ahead of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) historic 100th rocket launch, multiple scientists expressed their excitement and thoughts over the advancements the organisation has made, with the Director of Space Applications Centre (SAC)/ISRO Nilesh Desai talking about how this launch will update India's Regional Navigation Satellite System from 4 to 5 satellites.

Jitendra Singh congratulates ISRO for achieving landmark milestone of 100th launch

Union Minister Jitendra Singh tweets, "100th Launch: Congratulations ISRO for achieving the landmark milestone of 100th Launch from Sriharikota. It’s a privilege to be associated with the Department of Space at the historic moment of this record feat. Team ISRO, you have once again made India proud with successful launch of GSLV-F15 / NVS-02 Mission. From a humble beginning by Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and few others, it has been an amazing journey. And a quantum leap after PM Modi "unlocked” the Space sector and instilled the confidence that “sky is Not the limit”."

8th operational flight of GSLV

GSLV-F15 is the 17th flight of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and 11th flight with the Indigenous Cryo stage. It is the 8th operational flight of GSLV with an indigenous Cryogenic stage and 100th Launch from India's spaceport.

Speaking to ANI about the launch, Desai said, "We are going to launch at 6:23 am this GSLV-F-15 mission which will carry the NVS-02 satellite into orbit. Finally, it will be put in the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometres and it will increase the number of satellites of our navigation constellation from 4 to 5 and that will improve the overall accuracy of the positioning which we get from this navigation satellite."

"This is the 5th in the series of operational NavIC satellites. NavIC satellite is our earlier named IRNSS satellite configuration which is called the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, it is a part of this satellite constellation where we will put seven satellites. Older satellites are getting replaced with a new series of satellites," Desai added.

Meanwhile in Bengaluru, former Scientist and Professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, RC Kapoor explained the satellite constellation which is being planned, describing it as "India's own GPS."

"This series usually has a constellation of 7 satellites through which we can get very accurate positioning of the region in which this constellation will operate. There is a ranging system and a rubidium atomic clock on this satellite, which have been synchronized with clocks on the ground. It is going to be India's own GPS," Kapoor told media. "An area of about 1500 km beyond the borders of India will come under its coverage... Now we have our eyes on a very ambitious project NISAR, which is a collaboration of NASA and ISRO. This is an Earth observation satellite. This is the most expensive and biggest project of ISRO to date," he added.

Meanwhile, other scientists, such as W Selvamurthy praised the indigenously built NVS-02. "We will place our country's indigenously built navigation satellite NVS-02 in the space. It will increase the navigation capability of the NavIC system...This is very important for our country because ISRO has developed many types of launch vehicles in our country in which there is propulsion technology, material technology, control, guidance, navigation, payload, integration, payload separation and competition," Selvamurthy told media.

He further expressed his confidence in ISRO taking a "leadership position" in space research after becoming a developed nation in 2047, referencing the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047.'Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is India's independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide accurate Position, Velocity and Timing (PVT) service to users in India as well as to region extending about 1500 km beyond Indian land mass.

NavIC will provide two types of services-

1. Standard Positioning Service (SPS)
2. Restricted Service (RS)

NavIC's SPS provides a position accuracy of better than 20 m and a timing accuracy of better than 40 nanoseconds over the service area.