ISRO gears up to launch sixth Navigation Satellite Today

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is going to launch India’s sixth navigation satellite named IRNSS-1F today at 4pm on trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C32 in the orbit at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

• The 54-hour countdown for the launch started on Tuesday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota which is around 110 km away from Chennai. The PSLV C32 is on its 34^th mission and is aimed at providing navigation services at par with US-based Global Positioning System (GPS).
• So far, ISRO has launched five regional navigational satellites under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E) as part of the constellation of seven satellites with the aim to provide accurate position information service to people around the country. The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July, 2013 and the seventh one is expected to be launched in the later part of this year.
• However, according to an ISRO official, the first four satellites are adequate to run the operations of the IRNSS syatem whereas the remaining three satellites will make the operations more “accurate and efficient”. The official also said that through the first four satellites the space agency was able to provide navigation for 18 hours. But with the fifth launch the capacity of providing navigation improved to 24 hours with an accuracy of 20 metres.

(Source: HT)