Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System or IRNSS with an operational name of NAVIC (Sailor or Navigator in Hindi) stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation is an Indian developed Navigation Satellite System that is used to provide accurate real-time positioning and timing services over India and region extending to 1500 km around India. The fully deployed NAVIC system consists of 3 satellites in GEO orbit and 4 satellites in GSO orbit, approximately 36,000 km altitude above earth surface. However, the full system comprises nine satellites, including two on the ground as stand-by. The requirement of such a navigation system is driven because access to foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems is not guaranteed in hostile situations, as happened to the Indian military depending on American GPS during the Kargil War. The NAVIC would provide two services, with the Standard Positioning Service open for civilian use, and the Restricted Service (an encrypted one) for authorized users (including the military). Once the NAVIC is declared operational after checking the systems – space (satellites), ground (ground stations) and the user-end signal receivers, India will formally join a select group of nations owning their own Navigational Satellite system .