[Satnews] India's ZEE News has reported that  IRNSS-1E, the fifth satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System 'IRNSS-1E,' will be launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C31 from the spaceport of Sriharikota on January 20.

Photo of IRNSS-1E is courtesy of ISRO.

IRNSS-1E is scheduled for launch at 09:31 a.m. from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, about 100 km from Chennai, city-headquarter Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said today. Stating that IRNSS-1E carries two types of payloads navigation and ranging payload, ISRO said navigation payload will transmit navigation service signals to the users, and will be operating in L5-band and S-band. The ranging payload consists of a C-band transponder which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite, it said, adding that IRNSS-1E also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging. A highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload of the satellite.

IRNSS-1E is the fifth navigation satellite of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment, and has a lift-off mass of 1425 kg—the configuration is similar to that of its predecessors IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) Director M Annadurai had earlier said all seven satellites of IRNSS are expected to be in the orbit by March 2016. He had also said that the next two IRNSS satellites 1F and 1G were also in the very advanced stages of integration at the Bangalore satellite centre.

The constellation of seven satellites was planned by ISRO to constitute IRNSS, which would be at par with US-based GPS once the full complement of spacecrafts are launched. While four satellites would be sufficient to start operations of the IRNSS system, the remaining three would make it more accurate and efficient. ISRO said that as in the previous four launches of IRNSS satellites, PSLV-C31 will use 'XL' version of the rocket.