India’s space agency ISRO will launch its navigation satellite NVS-03 aboard a GSLV rocket on 30 October 2026, to strengthen the country’s regional navigation system. The GSLV-F18 mission is scheduled to lift off at 11:51pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, carrying a satellite weighing around 2,250 kilograms into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
NVS-03 is the third satellite in the second-generation Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) series, designed to provide navigation services across India and up to 1,500 kilometres beyond its landmass. It will carry an indigenous atomic clock alongside procured clocks, and add the L1 frequency band to the existing L5 and S signals, widening the services available to users.
The launch follows corrective measures after the NVS-02 mission failed at the orbit-raising stage in January 2025. Five second-generation NavIC satellites are planned in total, and NVS-03 is expected to help restore the system’s independent positioning capability once it is tested and commissioned in orbit.
Sources: Indian Express, Financial Express (ISRO announcement). Written in our own words for information only.