Mission success: ISRO's GSLV-F18 places NVS-03 navigation satellite in orbit
The midnight liftoff from Sriharikota restores India's NavIC constellation to four operational satellites.
The 50-metre, three-stage rocket rose from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, right on schedule at 11:51 PM IST. Around half an hour later ISRO announced on X that the 2,232 kg satellite had reached its intended orbit, and the mission was declared a success at 12:23 AM IST on Saturday.
NVS-03 is the third second-generation satellite for NavIC, India's regional navigation constellation, which provides positioning, navigation and timing services across India and up to 1,500 km beyond its borders. Only three of the earlier NavIC satellites were operational for positioning, below the minimum of four needed for standalone service. This launch restores that baseline, with NVS-04 and NVS-05 planned next.
The mission carried a notable engineering first for ISRO. After the NVS-02 failure in January 2025 — traced to a disconnected drive signal in an oxidiser-line pyro valve — the agency flew NVS-03 with those pyro valves already open, so the same fault cannot block orbit-raising again. The satellite will now fire its own engine several times to climb to its final geosynchronous slot at 32.5 degrees East.
