According to space agency sources, the 27-hour countdown for ISRO’s historic 100th mission from this spaceport—the launch of a navigation satellite aboard a GSLV rocket—began on Tuesday. Additionally, this will be ISRO Chairman V Narayanan’s first mission since taking office on January 13.
At 6:23 a.m. on January 29, the second launch pad here will host the 17th mission of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which will carry the navigation satellite NVS-02 and have an indigenous cryogenic upper stage.
The second navigation satellite in the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) series, it is designed to give users in the Indian subcontinent and in areas around 1,500 kilometers outside of Indian territory precise position, velocity, and timing.
“The 27.30 hour countdown commenced at 02.53 am on Tuesday,” multiple sources told PTI.
The 50.9 metre tall 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.
Five second-generation satellites make up NavIC: NVS-01, 02, 03, 04, and 05 intended to add improved functionalities to the NavIC base layer constellation in order to guarantee service continuity.
The U R Satellite Center created the NVS-02 satellite, which has a weight of roughly 2,250 kg. In addition to range payload in C-band like its predecessor NVS-01, it has navigation payload in L1, L5, and S bands.
Terrestrial, aerial, and maritime navigation, precision agriculture, fleet management, location-based services in mobile devices, satellite orbit determination, Internet-of-things (IoT)-based applications, emergency services, and timing services are among the main uses for the satellite, according to ISRO.
Source: BS