The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on May 29 successfully placed the NVS-01 navigation satellite, weighing about 2232 kg, into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. This Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) which placed the satellite, lifted off with a thunderous roar precisely at 10.42 a.m. from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
ISRO said, “After a flight of about 19 minutes, the NVS-O1 satellite was injected precisely into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. Subsequent orbit-raising manoeuvres will take NVS-01 into the intended Geosynchronous orbit.”
Talking from the control room ISRO Chairman S. Somanath congratulated the team behind this mission and said GSLV has placed the satellite in the precise orbit. He further said, “This mission happened after the debacle that we had in the F10 mission where there was an issue in the cryogenic stage. I’m very happy about the corrections and modifications that we have done in this stage as well as the lessons that we learnt out of it to make our cryogenic stage more reliable.” He also mentioned that NVS-01 is the first in the series of five satellites.
