ISRO successfully launches India's first navigation satellite

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which has been involved in over 100 missions for the first time in its 50 years old history launched a satellite in the night on Monday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

At 11.41 pm, the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C22 - standing around 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes roared into space turning the dark skies bright orange.

Scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket mission control room are intently watching the rocket's progress towards the sky escaping the earth's gravitational pull with one way ticket.

ISRO officials are hoping that the agency's crucial space mission will turn out to be a grand success.

The PSLV-C22 rocket is expected to spit out its only luggage - the 1,425 kg IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System)-1A.

The entire flight sequence - lift-off to the satellite ejection - took around 20 minutes.

India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed over 100 space missions.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV- C22 blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota with the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1A) it is for the first time that the space agency has launched a satellite at night.

An ISRO spokesperson told dna that the almost midnight launch has been scheduled taking into account the orbit and inclination at which the satellite will be injected into the space. “Also the season of the year has been taken into account for having a midnight launch. If the satellite was to be launched a few months later then it would have been an early morning one,” he said.

The IRNSS-1A is the first dedicated Indian Navigation Satellite. In total seven satellites of the IRNSS constellation will be launched and the full constellation will be up during 2014 timeframe.

According to ISRO, the IRNSS is designed to provide accurate position information service for terrestrial (cars, goods transport, buses) aerial (flights) and maritime (shipping) navigation for users in India as well as neighbouring regions extending up to 1,500 km from India's borders/boundaries, which will be its primary service area.

The IRNSS will provide two types of services: Standard Positioning Service (SPS) for all users; and Restricted Service (RS), an encrypted service provided only to authorised users.

The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area. This means if your vehicle is at point A on the ground, the error would go only as far as 20 metres, and not more -- which is pretty accurate in terms of navigational aspects.

The IRNSS-1A will be placed in an inclined geosynchronous orbit at 55 degree East longitude with an inclined orbit of 29 degrees with respect to the equator. The satellite will be positioned at 36,000 Kms altitude.

An inclined geosynchronous orbit means that the satellite's orbital plane will be tipped to some number of degrees from the horizontal as compared to the equator. In such cases although the satellite will be geosynchronous (completing one revolution around Earth along with Earth's rotation), it will not be geostationary (fixed in space at one point in relation with a location on Earth).

The entire IRNSS satellite constellation will compromise of three satellites geostationary orbits and four in inclined geosynchronous orbits, of which IRNSS-1A is the first one.

Around 20 minutes into the launch, the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) will eject the navigational satellite at an altitude of 501 km.

According to ISRO, the 1,425 kg navigational satellite IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System)-1A is intended to provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management.

The satellite with a life span of around 10 years is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment — a regional navigational system developed by India designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line, ISRO said.

Following the Monday launch of navigational satellite, ISRO is planning to launch its communication satellite G-Sat 14 using a heavier rocket — Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) — powered with a domestic cryogenic engine some time in August this year.

It will be followed by the mission to Mars later this year. The launch of one more remote sensing satellite is also being planned before the end of the year.

Applications of IRNSS:

Terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers, and visual and voice navigation for drivers.