Isro is making strides to enhance the accessibility of India’s regional navigation system, NaVIC, for civilian use, which has primarily been reserved for strategic applications until now, as stated by Pawan Goenka, the chairman of the space regulatory body and promoter INSPACe. He indicated that by 2025, Isro aims to launch approximately twelve satellites annually, including six GSLV missions, to meet the increasing demands of the space industry. The introduction of seven navigation satellites equipped with a new L1 band will enable NaVIC signals to be received on civilian mobile devices that have compatible chipsets, with one satellite already successfully launched. Previous navigation satellites operated on different frequency bands (L5 and S), as Goenka elaborated during a media roundtable.Goenka emphasized that NaVIC (Navigation With Indian Constellation) offers superior accuracy compared to other global navigation systems, and the government is actively working to expand its coverage. The system provides positioning accuracy of better than 10 meters across India and better than 20 meters in regions extending 1,500 kilometers beyond its borders.
He noted that the establishment of INSPACe, along with the introduction of a space policy and foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, has significantly invigorated the sector. Furthermore, he mentioned that the next goal is to develop space legislation, which is currently lacking in the country. The first draft has been prepared and will undergo consultation before being submitted to the ministry for approval, with the entire process expected to conclude by the end of this year or the first quarter of the next. To capture a significant portion of the $5.2 billion global small satellite market, Isro is concentrating on small launch vehicles and satellites, with the mini-launcher SSLV being developed for this purpose, and plans to transfer its technology to the private sector within the next two years.
