India’s first dedicated navigational satellite IRNSS—1A with a 10 year mission life will be launched on July 1 by ISRO on board PSLV—C22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at nearby Sriharikota.
“The 64—hour count down will start in the early hours on June 29 and the launch is scheduled at 11.41 PM on July 1. As of now, the launch rehearsal is in progress. Global checks have been completed successfully,” ISRO spokesman Deviprasad Karnik told PTI.
ISRO said the satellite, with navigation and ranging payloads, would provide accurate positional information to users as well as the whole region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary.
IRNSS—1A has already been mounted on an ‘XL’ version of the launch vehicle, ISRO’s 24th mission of a PSLV.
This is the fourth time in 24 missions ISRO will use an ’XL’ version for the launch. It has used XLs for launches of Chandrayaan 1 (PSLV—C11), GSAT—12 (PSLV—C17) and RISAT—1 (PSLV—C19).
IRNSS—1A is one of seven satellites constituting Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) space segment.