The Centre is pushing to restore full functionality of NaVIC, the country’s home-grown navigation network, with plans to send up four fresh satellites in the coming period, The Times of India reported.
Providing an update in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (6 August), space minister Jitendra Singh laid out the sequence in a written reply. “NVS-03 is ready for launch after incorporation of all corrective measures arising from the NVS-02 anomaly. It will be followed by the launch of NVS-04 and NVS-05. One more satellite is planned thereafter to complete the seven-satellite NavIC base layer constellation,” he said.
The minister stopped short of specifying when these missions would take place.
Referring to the setback with the NVS-02 replacement satellite in 2025, Singh explained that fixes had already been rolled out and validated. “Necessary corrective measures have been incorporated and successfully implemented and tested in CMS-03 satellite. The same will be followed in subsequent satellites, including the NavIC series of satellites carrying bi-propellant systems,” he stated.
At present, navigation support is limited to just three spacecraft, namely IRNSS 1-B, IRNSS 1-L and NVS-01.
Effective operation of the system, however, demands a minimum of four satellites fitted with working atomic clocks. As a result, NaVIC has ceased to deliver independent positioning services.
The situation worsened in March this year when the final atomic clock aboard IRNSS-1F broke down, bringing the network to a standstill.
India’s first-generation NavIC satellites went up between 2013 and 2018, but the fleet was soon plagued by repeated atomic clock failures across several IRNSS units.
The NVS line marks the second generation of these satellites. ISRO placed NVS-01 into its intended orbit in 2023, yet the failed NVS-02 launch in 2025 pushed back the timelines for NVS-03, NVS-04 and NVS-05.
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