ISRO chairman congratulates team on successful launch

Sriharikota: Congratulating the ISRO team for the success, a beaming ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said, "Today with this New Year we are starting the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite fifth launch, fifth of the seven satellite constellation. With this satellite in place, within our country we will be able to get 24/7 provisional good positional accuracy".

"Let me congratulate the entire ISRO team for the work they have done and we are having a long way to go. We have got two more satellites to be launched in this constellation, which would happen in the next couple of months", Kiran Kumar said from the Mission Control Centre.

On the future launches, he said, "We have a long way to go. This year we are planning to launch the earth observation satellites." "We intend to complete this year the launch of our GSLV-Mark III which is going to carry heavier satellites into geo-stationery transfer orbits. And, we have a long way to go. And I would like to remind all my colleagues, while we have started the New Year with success, we need to dedicate ourselves for completing the task on hand", he said.

Mission Director B Jayakumar said, "ISRO starts the New Year with a grand success. IRNSS-1E has been injected very precisely into the intended orbit. We have employed the most powerful vehicle for this launch with that able to carry the satellites. We have three variants in PSLV and with this launch we have completed 33 launches in PSLV."

"With this, the uniqueness is 11,11,11. The core alone version 11xL variant is 11 and generic variant is 11. It is first Mission for ISRO in New Year", Jayakumar said. IRNSS-1E has configuration similar to its predecessors IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D and carries two types of payloads -- navigation and ranging payloads.

The navigation payload will transmit navigation service signals to the users and operating in L5-band and S-band, while the other comprises a C-band transponder that facilitates accurate determination of the satellite range. IRNSS-1E has a lift-off mass of 1,425 kg and carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging and a highly accurate rubidium atomic clock (also part of the navigation payload of the satellite).

The four satellites already launched include IRNSS-1A on July 1, 2013, IRNSS-1B on April 4, 2014, IRNSS-1C on October 16, 2014, IRNSS-1D on March 28, 2015. ISRO scientists plan to put all the seven navigation satellites in to the orbit by March 2016. The mission life of IRNSS-1E is 12 years.