India's NVS-02 navigation satellite encounters technical problem while raising orbit

On February 3, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said that the navigation satellite NVS-02 had a technical problem during the orbit raising process that occurred the day before.

Accordingly, the satellite was launched on January 29 from the Sriharikota launch pad, off the coast of the Bay of Bengal in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO claimed after the launch that the satellite's solar panels were deployed successfully and power generation was functioning normally.

Contact with the ground station was also established. However, the planned orbital raising operations to place the satellite in the designated orbital position could not be completed.

The cause was that the valves that receive the oxidizer to activate the thrusters were damaged and could not be opened.

Despite the incident, ISRO assured that the satellite's systems are functioning properly and the satellite is currently in an elliptical orbit.

The organization is currently exploring alternative mission strategies to use satellites for navigation purposes in current orbits.

The launch of NVS-02 by Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-F15 marks a notable milestone for ISRO, as it is the organisation's 100th successful launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.