ISRO successfully launched IRNSS 1B from Sriharikota

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 4 April 2014 launched India’s 2nd regional navigational satellite, IRNSS 1B from Sriharikota Space Station of Andhra Pradesh. The launch of IRNSS series would enable India to have its own reliable and independent navigational resources for itself.
    
The satellite was lifted off by the Polar Satellite Vehicle (PSLV) C 24 at 5.14 pm. IRNSS (Indian Regional navigational satellite) was injected by the launch vehicle after four stages of 19 minutes of its take off from Sriharikota.

This launch of IRNSS 1B is the 25th successful launch of the PSLV series by ISRO. This launch of the satellite had brought India close to join the group of selected nations namely US, Russia, China, Japan and European countries.

IRNSS series launch will benefit India from its applications including terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management. It will also provide visual and voice navigation for hikers and travelers.

About Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an independent regional navigation satellite system that has been designed with an aim to provide position accuracy better than 10m over India and the region extending about 1500 kms around India. As per ISRO the series of satellite would provide an accurate real time Position, Navigation and Time (PNT) services to users on a variety of platforms with 24x7 service availability under all weather conditions.

The IRNSS system mainly consists of three components, namely
• Space Segment (Constellation of Satellites & Signal–In–Space)
• Ground Segment and User Segment    

IRNSS constellation consists of seven satellites. Plan of positioning these seven satellites are as follows
• Three satellites will be placed in the Geostationary Equatorial orbit (GEO at 34 deg East, 83 deg East & 131.5 deg East)
• Two satellites each will be placed in the Geosynchronous orbit (GSO) with equator crossing at 55 deg East and 111.5 deg East and an inclination of 29 deg
• Two spare satellites are also planned to be realized

IRNSS will have two types of signals in L5 and S-band centre frequency, with the L band centre frequency being 1176.45 MHz and S-band centre frequency being 2492.028 MHz. Both L5 and S-band consist of two downlinks. IRNSS provides two basic services such as Standard Positioning Service (SPS) for common civilian users and Restricted Service (RS) for special authorised users.

The best part of IRNSS is that the navigation software of the series is being developed indigenously at ISRO Satellite Center.

ISRO is collaborating with NPL to realise a space qualified Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard.

Further, by the end of 2014 India would send two more satellites and three others will be sent in the beginning of the year 2015. These launches would make the constellation complete and provide a unique position to India in the world. India has also planned to launch the unique Mark III satellites by June 2014.