All set for launch of India’s satellite navigation system

Chennai

Indian Space Research Organsiation (ISRO) sources told UNI on Thursday that the launch would take  place at 12-50 am from the First Launch Pad.The four-stage vehicle has been integrated at the  Vehicle Assembly Building at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and the work on integrating the satellite with the launch vehicle was expected to be completed on Friday.

The date for the Launch Authorisation Board meeting, which would clear the launch, would  also be  decided in the next couple of days, the  sources added.  With this launch, India would be joining the  elite group of nations to have its own regional satellite navigation system, on par with the GPS  system of the United States (US). The launch of the last and seventh satellite  IRNSS-1G, would mark the completion of the  entire Phase-1 IRNSS constellation.

Till date, India has launched six regional navigational satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID,  1E and 1F) as part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500 km.

As in the previous six launches of IRNSS satellites, the ‘XL’ version of PSLV would be used in this mission also. This would be for the 13th time ‘XL’ configuration would be flown.

The IRNSS was similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the US (24 satellites), Glonass of  Russia, and Galileo of Europe as well as China’s Beidou.