As the countdown for the launch of India’s navigation satellite IRNSS 1C, will commence at the space port of Sriharikota on Monday, the launch is expected to immensely help marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management in the country.
IRNSS 1C is the third of seven satellites in the series to put in place India’s navigation system on par with US’ Global Positioning System, on board PSlV C 26, an Indian work horse to launch satellites.
According to ISRO, IRNSS is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in the country as well as the region extending upto 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS) and is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.
The IRNSS Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (ICD) for Standard Positioing Service (SPS) is released to the public to provide the essential information on the IRNSS signal-in-space, to facilitate research and development and aid the commercial use of the IRNSS signals for navigation-based applications.
The ISRO officials say the IRNSS is similar to US’ Global Positioning System, Russia’s Glonass and Europe’s Galileo. China and Japan also have similar systems, ‘Beidou’ and ‘Quasi Zenith’.
IRNSS 1C with a lift-off mass of 1,425.4 kg would be launched on the 28th flight of India’s PSlV-C26 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. like the launch of similar missions of IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B earlier, this mission would be launched on the Xl version of the PSlV.
As part of its zeal to build a regional navigational system equivalent to Global Positioning System of the US, ISRO plans to send seven satellites to put in place the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS). The first two satellites in the series, IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B were launched from Sriharikota on July 1, 2013 and April 4 this year respectively. According to space scientists ISRO needs to launch at least four of the seven satellites to start operations of IRNSS.
The launch of ISRO’s Polar Satellite launch Vehicle, PSlV-C26, is now scheduled on Thursday, October 16, 2014. The launch window of the mission opens at 0132 hrs IST and lasts till 0147 hrs IST. The lift-off is scheduled at the opening of the launch window at 0132 hrs IST. PSlV-C26 will carry the 1425 kg Indian Navigation Satellite IRNSS-1C.
IRNSS-1C, the third satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, has already been integrated with PSlV-C26 and the final phase of checks is progressing. The Mission Readiness Review (MRR) Committee and the launch Authorisation Board (lAB) met on October 07, 2014 to review the progress of prelaunch activities and cleared the launch for October 16, 2014.