India’s First 2025 Mission Successfully Launches A Navigation Satellite

India’s first 2025 mission has been launched successfully.

As scheduled, the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) departed the Satish Dhawan Space Centre tonight at 7:53 p.m. EST (00:53 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on January 29).

The ancient spaceport on Sriharikota, a barrier island off the southeast coast of India, has launched its 100th rocket overall. According to The Hindu, the first orbital launch from this location occurred in August 1979.

Approximately 19 minutes after liftoff, the 167-foot (50.9-meter) three-stage GSLV successfully placed the NVS-02 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, completing its mission.

As part of the Navigation with Indian Constellation program, NVS-02 is the second of five planned next-generation spacecraft. NavIC is India’s autonomous regional navigation satellite system, according to ISRO officials in a mission description. Its primary service area is approximately 1500 kilometres (930 miles) outside of Indian territory, and its purpose is to provide users with precise Position, Velocity, and Timing (PVT) services both inside India and outside of it.

In May 2023, India successfully launched the first NVS satellite using a GSLV rocket, having begun assembling NavIC almost a decade before. The five spacecraft in this new series are designed to strengthen the NavIC base layer constellation by offering better features to guarantee service continuity, according to ISRO officials.

This evening’s launch was India’s first space mission of the year. The major SpaDeX satellite-docking demonstration on December 30 was one of five space missions the nation carried out in 2024.