Sriharikota: Indian space agency ISRO on Monday successfully launched a navigation satellite on board an expendable GSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Nearly 20 minutes after the flight, the rocket deployed the satellite in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) at an altitude of about 251 km, ISRO said. The navigation satellite has been successfully placed in orbit.
“We now have the ability to launch even bigger payloads,” ISRO said.
The Bengaluru-headquartered agency is launching the second-generation navigation satellite series, a significant launch which would ensure the continuity of NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) services — an Indian regional satellite navigation system, similar to GPS, providing accurate and real-time navigation in India and a region extending to 1,500 km around the mainland.
NavIC signals are designed to provide user position accurate to better than 20 metres and timing accuracy of better than 50 nanoseconds.
