spacetoday.net: India plans satellite navigation system

Posted: Wed, Jul 5, 2006, 8:37 AM ET (1237 GMT)
The Indian space agency ISRO announced Tuesday that it plans to develop its own satellite navigation system. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will feature seven satellites, most likely in GEO and/or elliptical orbits, as well as ground stations, that will give India a satellite navigation capability independent of existing systems, such as GPS. The space segment of IRNSS will be built and launched by India, with an estimated total cost of 16 billion rupees (US$350 million) over the next five to six years, according to ISRO. The move is a shift from previous plans, where India planned to cooperate with Russian and Europe on their satellite navigation systems, GLONASS and Galileo, while developing ground-based augmentation systems to allow the use of such systems in aviation.