Additionally, ISRO also has ambitious plans of launching a dozen satellites every year, including six GSLV launches to fulfil growing demand of the space sector, starting 2025.
“We are introducing seven navigation satellites with new L1 band that will make NaVIC signals accessible in civilians’ mobile phones with a compatible chipset. Of the seven, one satellite has already been launched. Navigation satellites launched earlier worked on different bands (L5 and S),” Goenka said during a media roundtable.
What is NaVIC?
He said NaVIC (Navigation With Indian Constellation) is more accurate than other navigation systems in the world and govt is working to widen its reach.
NaVIC provides positioning accuracy of better than 10 metre throughout India and better than 20 metre for the area surrounding India by 1,500 km.
Announcements of creation of INSPACe, space policy and FDI policy have given a much-needed boost to the sector, the chairman said, adding, “our next objective is to bring in space law, which the country doesn’t have”. “We have prepared the first draft and will send it for consultation and then it will go to the ministry for clearance before cabinet approval. The entire process will be completed by either end of this year or by the first quarter of next year,” he said.
Upcoming plans of ISRO:
In another boost for India-European space cooperation, Isro is set to launch Proba-3, a key spacecraft of the European Union (EU) for the Sun observation mission, in Dec, space minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.Speaking at the Indian Space Conclave 3.0 in the presence of EU ambassador for India and Bhutan Herve Delphin and Isro chairman S Somanath, the minister said, “EU’s large orbiter Proba-3 will go to space from Sriharikota (launch centre) in the first week of Dec. This will be the third spacecraft of the Proba series and it will observe the Sun. The earlier two satellites were launched for earth observation.”
“Space scientists from Isro and the European Union are going to jointly observe the Sun’s atmosphere,” Singh said.
The Proba-3 mission includes two satellites that will work together to create a 144-metre-long instrument known as a solar coronagraph. This will help scientists to study the Sun’s corona which is difficult to observe due to the brightness of the solar disk. The ‘world’s first precision formation flying mission’ will enable scientists to study the Sun’s elusive corona with unprecedented proximity and detail.
The EU’s Sun mission comes after Isro launched its indigenous Sun mission Aditya L1 last Sept, where a solar observatory was sent to Lagrangian point L1 to study the Sun’s corona and observe the dynamics of its chromosphere.