ISRO marks 100th mission with successful navigation satellite launch

ISRO on Jan 29 celebrated its 100th mission with the textbook launch of a navigation satellite that would aid in terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation and precision agriculture, among others, with a GSLV rocket injecting the payload in the desired orbit.

The early morning launch was the first under ISRO Chairman V Narayanan's leadership — he assumed office on January 16 — and also the space agency's maiden venture in 2025.

A beaming Narayanan was hugged and greeted by fellow scientists post the launch.

"I am extremely happy to announce from the spaceport of ISRO, that the first launch of this year, 2025, has been successfully accomplished, with GSLV- F15 launch vehicle precisely injecting the navigation satellite NVS-02 in the intended required (GTO) orbit," he said from the Mission Control Center.

"This mission is the 100th launch from our launchpads, which is a very significant milestone of India," the ISRO chief added.

Further, all the vehicles systems have performed as expected in today's mission.

Earlier, as the 27.30-hour countdown concluded, the 50.9 meter tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, emanating thick fumes on its tail lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at a prefixed time of 6.23 am on Jan 29.

After travelling for about 19 minutes in dark and cloudy skies, the rocket successfully separated its payload into the desired Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

The satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass. Its predecessor, NVS-01, the first of the second generation navigation satellites was launched on May 29, 2023.

The key applications of the NVs-02 satellite are terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation, precision agriculture, fleet management, location based services in mobile devices, orbit determination for satellites, Internet-of-Things (IoT) based applications and emergency and timing services, ISRO said.

NavIC comprises five second generation satellites — NVS-01/02/03/04/05 envisaged to augment NavIC base layer constellation with enhanced features for ensuring continuity of services.

The NVS-02 satellite designed and developed by Bengaluru-based U R Rao Satellite Centre weighs about 2,250 kg. It has navigation payload in L1, L5 and S bands and employs a Tri-band antenna.

The heart of the navigation payload is the Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard (RAFS), an atomic clock which acts as a stable frequency reference for the navigation payload.

In his address, Narayanan detailed ISRO's journey.

"Our space program was conceived and started by the visionary leader Prof Vikram Sarabhai and taken forward by generations of leaders — couple of senior leaders are right now available in the VIP gallery," he said, pointing out to former ISRO chiefs, including S Somanath and AS Kiran Kumar.

So far, ISRO has developed six generations of launch vehicles, with the first one taking shape under the guidance of Prof Satish Dhawan and with former President APJ Abdul Kalam as the project director, in 1979. It was SLV-3 E1/Rohini Technology payload.

"From that, till today, including today, we have accomplished 100 launches from these launchpads. Over these 100 launches, we have lifted 548 satellites to orbits...we have lifted totally 120 tons of payload including 23 tons of 433 foreign satellites," Narayanan informed.

The launch site here has witnessed several significant milestones of the Indian space program, including three Chandryaan missions, Aditya L1 mission, a single rocket placing 104 satellites in the orbit and a host of communication, earth observation and navigation satellites.

"On behalf of the present generation of ISRO leaders, I salute all the previous generation of leaders, the past and present employees and our family members, industrial and academia partners for their since efforts, hardwork and dedication that enabled us to accomplish this mission," he said.

He thanked the political leadership for the encouragement and support provided throughout the space program.

The NavIC system was evolving as the backbone of indigenous satellite navigation ecosystem of the Indian region.

"The NVS-02 satellite incorporates the second indigenous Atomic clock, which is a shining example of Make in India in the critical technology development".

"Today, many applications based on NavIC, spanning from strategic uses, tracking of shipping vessels, time synchronization, train tracking and safety of life alert dissemination are accomplished," he said.

The future launches include NISAR with NASA.

"Concurrently you all know, we are progressing extremely well for the preparation of the uncrewed G1 mission as part of the Gaganyaan program and some more experiments are targeted this year," he said

"I think we are accelerating the activities this year. Let me thank our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji for his visionary leadership in rolling out the space sector reforms and what he has given for the next 20 years for ISRO and DoS (Department of Space) to make this country as a developed country." he said.

(PTI)