About a fortnight late but the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has finally launched its first navigation satellite IRNSS-1A (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota yesterday night. This is first of the seven navigation satellites to be launched and the organization plans to launch the remaining satellites by 2015-16, following which it will be able to provide navigation service in the country. ISRO also claimed that it has setup several ground stations for the generation and transmission of navigation parameters, satellite control, satellite ranging and monitoring across 15 locations across the country. A Deccan Chronicle report cites ISRO to say that the organization plans to launch a satellite every six months, which indicates that IRNSS will probably complete the deployment in 2016. It also cites ISRO officials to mention that the project will cost them Rs 14.2 billion. Services: ISRO said that IRNSS will offer two type of services namely Standard Positioning Services for all users and Restricted Services (RS) which will be provided only to authorised users. In April 2013, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan had also mentioned that IRNSS will allow them to offer several new satellite based services over the next two years, however he hadn't disclosed any specific information on this. ISRO claimed (pdf) that the service will offer accurate position information to users in India and the region extending up to 1500 km from India's boundaries and will provide a position accuracy of better than 20 metres in these areas. The organization said that IRNSS will be used in areas like terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation sector,…
