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Isro Successfully Launches Final IRNSS Navigation Satellite

Isro Successfully Launches Final IRNSS Navigation Satellite

By Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: 28 April 2016 16:23 IST

Indian space agency Isro said its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket lifted off successfully on Thursday afternoon with the country's seventh and final navigation satellite, IRNSS-1G, from the rocket port in Sriharikota.

The PSLV-XL standing 44.4 metre tall and weighing 320 tonnes, tore into the afternoon skies at 12.50 p.m. breaking free of the earth's gravitational pull.

Named the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), it consists of a constellation of seven satellites of which six - IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1C, IRNSS-1D, IRNSS-1E and IRNSS-1F- have already been put into orbit.

The seventh satellite in the series - IRNSS-1G - weighing 1,425 kg is expected to soon join the other six.

Just over 20 minutes into the flight, the rocket would put IRNSS-1G into orbit at an altitude 497.8 km.

The satellite's life span is 12 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Indian space scientists after a successful launch of the country's seventh navigation satellite that blasted off from the spaceport of Sriharikota.

"Our scientists have achieved many accomplishments. Through space science, lives of people can be transformed. India has launched seven navigation satellites which have been successful," he said in a televised address.

He said the successful launch of the satellite, which guarantees India's indigenous satellite navigation system, was a "precious gift by Indian scientists to the people of the country".

"Our efforts will not only help India but can help fellow Saarc nations as well," Modi said.

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