The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to have five more of the second-generation navigation satellites at an outlay of about Rs 1,000 crore as part of its NavIC system (Navigation with Indian Constellation system).
Each NaVIC satellite will have three atomic clocks. Also, two more are needed after 2 to 3 years to take care of the end of life of present ones.
Recently, the ISRO launched the first of its second-generation navigation satellites called NVS-01.
Till now, following eight NavIC satellites have been put into orbit by India: –
- IRNSS-1A
- IRNSS-1B
- IRNSS-1C
- IRNSS-1D
- IRNSS-1E
- IRNSS-1F
- IRNSS-1G
- IRNSS-1I
The outlay for the IRNSS/first-generation NavIC systems is likely to be around Rs 1420 crore.
Further, out of the eight NavIC satellites in orbit four are functional for navigation services and four others are doing messaging services.
Notably, NavIC is like the Global Positioning System of the US, Glonass of Russia and Galileo of Europe as well as China’s Beidou.
