Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began the countdown for its historic 100th mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) of Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on Monday. The countdown commenced on Tuesday at 02:53 AM. The launch of a navigation satellite, NVS-02, will take place at 6:23 am Wednesday, January 29. This is a big achievement in ISRO’s space exploration journey as the leader has now taken over the ISRO chairman, V. Narayanan, who took charge on January 13, 2025.
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-F15, which is 50.9 meters tall, will place the NVS-02 satellite in orbit. It will also be the 17th flight of the GSLV rocket carrying an indigenous cryogenic upper stage. The second satellite of the series of Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) satellites is NVS 02. The NavIC is designed to provide positional, velocity, and timing information to the users in the Indian sub-continent and to other regions at 1,500 km from its borders.
The NavIC base layer constellation consists of five second-generation satellites, i.e., NVS-01, NVS-02, NVS-03, NVS-04, and NVS-05, and the NVS-02 satellite will support the augmentation of this base layer constellation. The system will become more capable through this series of enhancements, and services will continue to be available across the region. The NVS-02 is the second of this new series, and its successful deployment builds on India’s momentum for satellite navigation capabilities, which started with the launch of the NVS-01 in May 2023.
The 100th mission comes as a testament to the growing capability of the organization and its contribution to global space research and technology.
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