Update on March 28: ISRO has successfully launched its fourth navigation satellite at 5.19 pm today. The Indian rocket, IRNSS-1D was launched from the Sriharikota rocket port. So far, 3 navigation satellites have already been launched as s part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide two dimensional accurate position information service to users across the country. After the successful launch of the fourth satellite, users will receive a three dimensional picture.
The satellite is expected to show the position of the object to a resolution better than 20 m 95% of the time. Meanwhile, ISRO has been selected for the Gandhi peace prize for 2014. The award consists of a citation and a cash prize of 1 crore rupees.
March 27: India is closer than ever to setting up its own navigation system which will be at par with the Global Positioning System (GPS) of United States. India’s latest navigation satellite IRNSS-1D onboard PSLV-C-27 will be launched on March 28 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The region is currently experiencing the pre-monsoon period. But clear weather is expected on launch day.
Initially, the launch was scheduled for March 9, but was deferred to a later date due to an anomaly detected in one of the telemetry transmitters. Now, the satellite will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at around 5.19 pm on Saturday. The IRNSS 1D is the fourth satellite in the series of seven satellites which will help put in place the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
As per ISRO, four satellites are enough to make the IRNSS operational. But the additional three satellites will make the IRNSS more accurate and efficient. The first three satellites out of the planned seven were launched last year from Sriharikota only. Besides these, there will be two other ground satellites on stand-by mode. Each satellites costs close to Rs. 150 crore and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs around Rs. 130 crore. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs. 1, 420 crore and the project is targeted to be completed by this year.
The system will be providing two kinds of services- the Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and the Restricted Service. While the SPS will be provided to all the users, the restricted service will be an encrypted version and will be served to authorized users only. The service system, once fully functional, will provide accurate information regarding positioning to users across the country up to an area of 1,500 km.
