At the end of the month, India will launch its eighth navigation satellite to act as a back up for its constellation in the Geo orbit.
ISRO Satellite Centre Director, M. Annadurai said, “We are preparing to launch the eighth Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1H) at the end of this month as a standby for the Navigation Indian Constellation (NavIC), which is operational for services.”
The satellite weighs 1.4 tonnes and will be launched from ISRO’s spaceport at Sriharikota.
Annadurai further added, “The satellite is ready to move from our center to Sriharikota on August 12 on a special vehicle for integration with the rocket at the space center.”
Once all the checks have been completed for the launch, the authorization board will decide the date and time.
ISRO announced it will use a medium Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C39) with four straps on motors. The satellite will then deploy the satellite first in the Geo transfer orbit and then into the Geo stationary orbit.
ISRO’s Director, K. Sivan said, “The spare or standby satellite will also make up for the nonfunctioning of the three rubidium atomic clocks on board the first one (IRNSS-1A) and one each in the other two NavIC satellites.”
He went on to say, “We are not going to abandon the first one (IA) as it working well with all its functions except the atomic clocks being normal. In the other satellites, we are using only one clock, as other two are for redundancy.”
