ISRO puts third of seven Indian GPS satellites IRNSS-1C in space

On its 27th consecutive successful mission the Indian Space Research Organization’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launched the IRNSS -1C, the third in a series of seven Indian Regional Navigation Satellite Systems from Sriharikota early on Thursday morning.
The launch of the 1425 kg IRNSS-1C on board the PSLV-C26 was carried out at 1.32 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, ISRO said in an official statement.
“After a flight of about 20 minutes 18 seconds, IRNSS-1C Satellite, weighing 1425 kg, was injected to an elliptical orbit of 282.56 km X 20,670 km, which is very close to the intended orbit,’’ ISRO said.
Over the next few days four orbit manoeuvres will be conducted from ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka to place the satellite in a geostationary orbit at 83 deg East longitude. The first two satellites in the IRNSS series 1A and 1B were launched on the PSLV on July 02, 2013 and April 04, 2014 respectively. These satellites are functioning satisfactorily, ISRO said. The IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system designed by ISRO to provide GPS type positioning information in the Indian region and 1500 km around the Indian mainland.“ IRNSS would provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Services (SPS) – provided to all users – and Restricted Services (RS), provided to authorised users,’’ ISRO said. “A number of ground stations responsible for the generation and transmission of navigation parameters, satellite control, satellite ranging and monitoring, etc., have been established in as many as 15 locations across the country,’’ ISRO said. The next satellite in the series the IRNSS-1D is scheduled to be launched by PSLV by the end of the year. The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is proposed to be put in place by 2015.