India successfully launched NVS-03, a next-gen navigation satellite, via GSLV-F18, marking a significant step towards regional autonomy in positioning and navigation. Part of the NavIC system, the satellite features indigenous rubidium clocks and supports L1 frequency, addressing previous challenges and reducing reliance on foreign technology.
INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION'S (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F18), on Saturday, October 30, 2026 successfully placed next-generation navigation satellite NVS-03 into orbit, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, strengthening India’s effort to meet the positioning, navigation and timing (PVT) requirements of the nation.
The achievement of NVS-03, part of the second generation of navigational satellites, has come amid ISRO's effort to modernise India's first generation navigation system Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), now known as Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), which is a set of Navigation Satellite to cater to the regional navigational needs of the India unlike Global Positioning System (GPS) which covers global territory.
“The GSLV-F18 vehicle has successfully and precisely injected the NVS-03 satellite weighing 2250 kg in the intended elliptical orbit. Let me congratulate each and every team member of ISRO, industrial partners, academia for this outstanding accomplishment,” ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan said.
After the Kargil war in 1999, when the US denied GPS access to the Indian government to trace the location of Pakistani troops, India envisioned to develop its own satellite system without relying upon a foreign facility especially in a time of conflict. The first generation of IRNSS satellites were launched during the period of 2013-18, to provide services over India to an area extending almost 1,500 km beyond its boundaries, solely focusing on the regional needs of India.
NavIC, a constellation of 7 satellites, was envisaged as a regional system with applications including civilian navigation, transportation, disaster management, telecommunications, resource monitoring and surveying.
Its primary use consists of two purposes: one is daily use for the ordinary citizens and the other is more specific and strategic which is restricted in nature, particularly for the defence and armed forces.
The satellite navigation system worked due to Atomic rubidium clocks installed into them and India was importing those atomic clocks for the first gen NavIC (IRNSS) satellites from the Swiss company SpectraTime. One satellite usually has 3 clocks. Now in the second generation NavIC satellites India will try to install at least one of the indigenously built rubidium clocks manufactured by Space Application Center of the ISRO.
The NVS series of satellites will also show support to the L1 frequency band (frequencies at which GPS works) along with already existing navigation frequencies.
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The major problem was the failure of onboard atomic clocks in first-gen satellites and the timely replacement of these clocks hadn’t taken place for a long time. Several of the IRNSS category satellites either got decommissioned or didn’t generate the desired outcome due to their onboard clocks failure. In an RtI reply in July 2025, Isro replied that five satellites were unusable with all three clocks dead.
And to make matters worse, in March this year, the functioning of the last atomic clock in IRNSS-1F also stopped. The remaining three satellites fell short of the government's sanctioned strength of at least four necessary satellites for NavIC to maintain the positioning and navigation services of the nation.
In 2025 also ISRO suffered a setback when the launch of NVS-02 satellite couldn’t become operational due to the satellite's thruster failure during its journey to the final orbit.
Immediate priority of ISRO is to make sure that the constellation keeps functioning with at least four satellites out of seven with at least one indigenously built atomic clock installed in them. ISRO is also planning to boost the number of clocks from three to five so that it can provide additional backup if the individual clock fails. It also wants to reduce its dependence on imported clocks and rather produce more at home.
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The NVS-01 launched in May 2023, was a successful attempt unlike NVS-02, also contains an indigenous rubidium clock. Further NVS-04 and NVS-05 are also expected to launch by December 2026, as per The Hindu, to enrich the quantity of the constellation and to make sure India receive better services to meet with its both civil and strategic aspiration in the field of navigation and positioning without being dependent on a foreign country.
[Rh/GS/RS/2VrRS]
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