ISRO Launch India's Third Navigation Satellite IRNSS 1C

The IRNSS constellation with the daily lemniscate projection of the 4 GSO spacecraft onto Earth 

Credit: ISRO

India's third navigation satellite IRNSS 1C was launched on October 16 from Sriharikota spaceport in coastal Andhra Pradesh, space agency ISRO announced.

"Congrats to the scientists at ISRO for the successful launch of navigation satellite IRNSS 1C. It is a matter of immense pride and joy," the Prime Minister said in a statement.

"The 1,425kg navigation satellite (IRNSS-1C) launched October 16 at 1.32am IST onboard a polar rocket (PSLV-C26) from Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota," said an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) statement. Sriharikota is about 100km northeast of Chennai.

The satellite, which was scheduled for launch Oct 10 but the launch put off by a week due to a glitch in the telemetry system, is part of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) that will have a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate positioning service for terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation in 1,500 km area in the Indian peninsula.

The second navigation satellite (IRNSS-1B) was launched April 4 this year from the spaceport.

The Indian system will be similar to the US Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Glonass and Europe's Galileo constellation of navigation satellites.