The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its GSLV-F15 carrying the NVS-02 at 6:23 AM from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, reported PTI. This is ISRO's 100th launch from the country's spaceport.
The mission is also the first for the space agency's chairman, V Narayanan, who assumed office recently. This marks ISRO's first mission of the year.
V. Narayanan said he was extremely happy to announce that ISRO's first venture in 2025 was a success.
The satellite was "precisely injected into the required (GTO) orbit. This mission is the 100th launch, which is a very significant milestone," he said in his address post the successful launch.
"In this mission, the data has come; all vehicle systems are normal," Narayanan added.
ISRO had earlier successfully demonstrated a space docking experiment that was launched on December 30, 2024, making it the space agency's 99th mission.
Following the completion of the 27.30-hour countdown, the 50.9-meter-tall GSLV rocket successfully took off from the second launch pad at a prefixed time of 6.23 am on Wednesday.
After travelling for about 19 minutes in dark and cloudy skies, the rocket successfully separated its payload, the NVS-02 navigation satellite, into the desired Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The GSLV-F15 launch follows the GSLV-F12 mission, which successfully carried NVS-01, the first of the second generation navigation satellites, on May 29, 2023.
The key applications of the NVs-02 satellite are terrestrial, aerial, and maritime navigation; precision agriculture; fleet management; location-based services in mobile devices; orbit determination for satellites; Internet of Things (IoT)-based applications; and emergency and timing services, ISRO said.
Narayanan, detailing ISRO's journey, recalled the space mission being nurtured under the leadership of the legendary Vikram Sarabhai.
ISRO has so far developed six generations of launch vehicles, the first one being under Satish Dhawan and former President, the late APJ Abdul Kalam, as its project director, he said.
It was SLV-3 E1/Rohini Technology payload that was launched on August 10, 1979.
Since then, over these 100 launches, ISRO has 'lifted' 548 satellites to orbit, including those for foreign clients, Narayanan added.
During this period, several milestone launches have been done, including the three Chandrayaan missions, the missions to Mars and Sun among others, the Secretary, Department of Space, said.
(With PTI Inputs)
