Officials on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) say they’re trying to launch a minimum of three satellites earlier than 2026-end, to replace defunct satellites which might be a part of the ‘Indian GPS’ or Navic (Navigation with Indian constellation) system. However, there appears to be a key factor impeding the launch — the event of indigenous clocks.
These high-precision clocks — now proposed at 5 per satellite tv for pc — are what supplies correct timing (and therefore location) companies to customers on earth. The Navic satellites present extra correct location companies to the army and barely much less correct ones for civilian functions.
Nine satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), informally known as Navic, have been launched since 2013. Eight of them reached their meant orbit. The final of this constellation of satellites (IRNSS-1I) was launched in 2018. These constellation of satellites are akin to the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese Beidou, the American GPS and European Galileo constellation of satellites to present location companies. However, the Navic, is anticipated to achieve this solely inside India and a radius of 1,500 km. This is nevertheless seen extra as a fall again system within the case of future international conflicts and India being denied entry to these overseas constellations.
Last month, the ISRO revealed through a Right To Information request that 5 of the Navic satellites had been fully defunct with all three of their clocks in every satellite tv for pc not working. In one of many three satellites with functioning atomic clocks, two of the three clocks have failed. Only two satellites of the constellation, due to this fact, have practical atomic clocks. The atomic clocks on this constellation of satellites had been imported by the ISRO from the agency SpectraTime.
For the subsequent sequence of satellites to replace the impaired and ageing fleet of IRNSS satellites —two of the three getting used have handed or are shut to their rated shelf lifetime of 10 years although it’s doable for these programs to perform past — the ISRO has determined to set up indigenously developed rubidium clocks.
“Each satellite will have five clocks though we are still in the process of developing them,” Nilesh Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre, a key a part of the ISRO, informed The Hindu on the sidelines of a conclave in Delhi to commemorate National Space Day on Saturday.
Another official acquainted with the ISRO stated that whereas the rubidium clocks are based mostly on an indigenous design, there have been key elements that wanted to be imported and this was contributing to procurement challenges and delays in commissioning.
So far, to replace its decrepit fleet of IRNSS satellites, ISRO has launched two satellites NVS-01 in May 2023 and NVS-02 in January 2025. Only NVS-01 efficiently reached its designated orbit and is working as meant, with NVS-02 failing to attain the particular orbit required to perform as a navigational satellite tv for pc.
By 2040, India is aiming to launch a minimum of a 100 satellites, a number of of them to present earth imaging and communication companies for each authorities and personal sector purposes.
