IRNSS-1A is the first navigational
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
in the
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) series of satellites been placed in
geosynchronous orbit
A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...
.
Satellite
The satellite has been developed at a cost of ,
and was launched on 1 July 2013. It will provide
IRNSS
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of NavIC (acronym for 'Navigation with Indian Constellation; also, 'sailor' or 'navigator' in Indian languages), is an autonomous regional satellite navigation s ...
services to the Indian public, which would be a system similar to
Global Positioning System (GPS) but only for India and the region around it.
Each IRNSS satellite has two payloads: a navigation payload and CDMA ranging payload in addition with a laser retro-reflector. The payload generates navigation signals at L5 and S-band. The design of the payload makes the IRNSS system inter-operable and compatible with GPS and Galileo. The satellite is powered by two solar arrays, which generate power up to 1,660 watts, and has a lifetime of ten years.
Launch
The satellite was launched from the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) on 1 July 2013 at 11:41 PM (
IST
Ist or IST may refer to:
Information Science and Technology
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology
* Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan
* Graduate School ...
). The launch was postponed from its initial launch date of 26 June 2013 due to a technical snag in the 2nd stage of the
PSLV-C22 launch rocket.
ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
then replaced the faulty component in the rocket and rescheduled the launch to 1 July 2013 at 11:43 p.m.
Scientists from the
German Aerospace Centre (DLR)'s Institute of Communications and Navigation in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, have received signals from IRNSS-1A. On 23 July 2013, the German Aerospace Center scientists pointed their 30-meter dish antenna at Weilheim towards the satellite and found that it was already transmitting a signal in the L5 frequency band.
Partial Failure
The three Rubidium
atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...
s on-board IRNSS-1A failed, with the first failure occurring in July 2016. ISRO planned to replace it with
IRNSS-1H
IRNSS-1H was the eighth in the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) series of satellites, after IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1C, IRNSS-1D, IRNSS-1E, IRNSS-1F and IRNSS-1G. It was lost in the launch failure of PSLV-C39 on August 31, 2 ...
, in August 2017, but this failed to separate from the launch vehicle. On 12 April 2018, ISRO launched successfully
IRNSS-1I
IRNSS-1I is the eighth satellite in the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) series of satellites, in reality, IRNSS - 1I is the ninth satellite that launched in IRNSS constellation but it is counting as eighth satellite because ...
as a replacement for IRNSS-1A.
The cause of failure was traced to one of the feed through capacitor carrying the DC supply to the physics package of clock, malfunctioning due to excessive rise in temperature.
IRNSS-1A and IRNSS-1G are now being used only for NavIC's short message broadcast service.
See also
*
Communication-Centric Intelligence Satellite (CCI-Sat)
Communication-Centric Intelligence Satellite is an Indian advanced reconnaissance satellite, being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It will be India's first officially declared dedicated spy satellite and i ...
*
GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation (GAGAN)
*
Satellite navigation
A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...
References
External links
ISRO Future Programmes
{{Orbital launches in 2013
Spacecraft launched in 2013
2013 in India
IRNSS satellites
Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets