India launches fifth navigation satellite in space

MUMBAI (Web Desk) - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday launched fifth navigation satellite, the IRNSS-1E, in space, in a bid to move closer to create an operational "desi GPS" or home-grown Global Positioning System.

The satellite was successfully launched in the morning.

Spoke to the scientists at @isro & congratulated them on their accomplishment today. Our scientists keep making us proud.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 20, 2016

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on twitter congratulated the scientists on the achievement.

The 44 meter, 320 ton, PSLV rocket successfully lifted off into the sky at 5.14 PM from Sriharikota and 19 minutes later accurately placed India s second navigation satellite in space. A jubilant K Radhakrishnan, the ISRO Chairman, said, "PSLV in its 25th successive successful flight precisely injected India s second regional navigation satellite," reported NDTV.

The satellite navigation system will be a fleet of seven satellites that help provide precise locations within 20 meters.

Four satellites were launched earlier and are already operational whereas two more will be launched in the next two months in order to run the operations of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) smoothly and efficiently.

Injecting the navigation satellite will put India among six other countries i.e. America, Russia, Europe, China and Japan to have this system. The first satellite, IRNSS-1A, was launched on July 1, 2013, IRNSS-1B in April 2014, IRNSS-1C in October that year and the IRNSS-1D on March 28 last year.