NavIC satellite shortage: India’s GPS system faces crisis, urgent launch planned

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India’s own navigation system, NavIC, used for military purposes as well as ship and air navigation, is facing a crisis, prompting urgent efforts to launch a new satellite. A disruption of NavIC could also affect the country’s defence sector.

Considering the situation, the Centre has directed ISRO to launch a new NavIC satellite at the earliest, even if it means postponing the uncrewed launch planned under Gaganyaan. NavIC operates with four satellites active in space at the same time. The current crisis has been caused by two satellites becoming non-functional after completing their service life. Urgent efforts are now underway to launch NavIC’s new satellite, NVS-03, within weeks. The F-18 rocket of the GSLV Mk II series has been kept ready at Sriharikota, while construction of the satellite is in its final stage. NavIC will become fully operational after NVS-04 and NVS-05 are also launched. The 2.2-tonne satellite will have a service life of 10 years.

Own atomic clock for accurate timing

Instead of the Swiss-made clock used so far, the new satellite will use an atomic clock developed by the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad for greater timing accuracy. NavIC is India’s satellite navigation system, developed as an alternative to the US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou. The system was launched in 2013. Although 11 NavIC satellites have been launched, seven became non-functional due to problems with their atomic clocks.

Launch failure worsened the situation

• The launch planned in January 2025 for the NavIC system failed due to a calculation error.
• NavIC-1F completed its service life and became non-functional on March 10.
• NavIC-1B completed its service life in April 2024 but continued to function to some extent. It has now stopped working. NavIC is currently limited to one-way broadcasting.
• NavIC-1L, which is expected to remain operational until 2028, and NVS-01, whose service life extends until 2033, are currently in space.

Geostationary satellite

Located 36,000 km above the Earth’s surface, over the equator at 0° latitude.
It takes 24 hours to orbit the Earth. When viewed from Earth, it appears to remain stationary.

 Geosynchronous satellite

It takes 24 hours to orbit the Earth. It is positioned at a slight inclination to the equator and appears to move.