ISRO Unveils Plan To Expand Indian Navigation System NaVIC's Range Well Beyond The Borders

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to expand the coverage of its Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NaVIC) by doubling its range from the existing 1,500 km to 3,000 km beyond India's borders.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath made the announcement during the the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Foundation Day event at Bharat Mandapam on Tuesday.

NaVIC, a sophisticated navigation system, presently comprises seven satellites and a robust network of ground stations operating round the clock.

This constellation includes three satellites in geostationary orbit and four in inclined geosynchronous orbit.

The ground network consists of control centers, precise timing facilities, range and integrity monitoring stations, and two-way ranging stations.

Currently, NaVIC caters to two distinct user categories: the Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian applications and the Restricted Service (RS) tailored for strategic users like security agencies and the armed forces.

NaVIC's signals are known for their precision, offering user positioning accuracy within 20 meters and timing precision within 50 nanoseconds.

Notably, NaVIC's SPS signals are also compatible with signals from other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), including GPS (USA), Glonass (Russia), Galileo (Europe), and BeiDou (China).

This compatibility enhances its utility and effectiveness for a wide range of users across the globe.