ISRO’s 100th Mission In Trouble. Satellite Faces A Technical Glitch As Thrusters Fail To Fire

ISRO faced a hurdle in its attempts to place the NVS-02 satellite in the desired orbit after the thrusters on board the spacecraft were not able to fire, the space agency said on Sunday.

The NVS-02 satellite was important for India’s space-based navigation system. On January 29, the satellite was launched on board the GSLV-Mk 2 rocket. This was the 100th launch of ISRO from the spaceport at Shriharikota.

“But the orbit raising operations towards positioning the satellite to the designated orbital slot could not be carried out as the valves for admitting the oxidizer to fire the thrusters for orbit raising did not open,” said the space agency, in an update to the GSLV-F15 mission on its website.

Currently, the satellite is orbiting our planet in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). This has made the satellite unsuitable for the navigation system. “The satellite systems are healthy and the satellite is currently in elliptical orbit. Alternate mission strategies for utilising the satellite for navigation in an elliptical orbit are being worked out,” said ISRO.

After the satellite was placed in the GTO by the GSLV rocket, the solar panels on board the satellite were deployed successfully and power generation was nominal. The space agency said that they have been able to establish communication with the ground station.

ISRO was able to launch the satellite on board the GSLV successfully. All the stages had performed well and the satellite was able to achieve the orbit with a high degree of precision. This is the first mission of ISRO under the leadership of Chairman V Narayanan and also the space agency’s maiden venture this year.

What Is NVS-02 Satellite?
NVS-02, or Navigation Satellite-02 has been built as part of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC). This constellation is an independent regional navigation satellite system of India and has been designed to provide accurate Position, Velocity and Timing (PVT) service to users in India and also in regions which extend to 1500 km beyond the country.

SPS of the NavIC gives a position accuracy which is better than 20 meters and also provides a timing accuracy which is better than 40 nanoseconds across the service area. The NVS-02 was the fifth satellite of the constellation. The first launch took place in 2013. On May 29, 2023, the NVS-01 was launched.