The 64-hour countdown process for India’s first Indian Regional Navigational system satellite – IRNSS-1A began at 7.11 this morning. ISRO officials said that the propellant filling operations in the fourth stage and the reaction control of first stage has been completed.

This will be the first satellite in a constellation of seven satellites and the whole process is planned to be completed around 2015. This ambitious project will wholly be in India’s control for providing navigation signals all over the Country and surrounding areas of upto 1500 kms beyond the borders. The system will provide services that will be accessible to anyone and an encrypted restricted service that will be available to authorized users of the Government.

This is the fourth time that an XL configuration is being flown, the earlier three were Chandrayaan,PSLV C-11,17 and 19 and also GSAT 12 and RISAT -1. IRNSS will provide accurate information of tracking vehicles in land , air and water. It will also keep a track on their respective destinations.

The precise information on the touch down and lift off timing of aircrafts, the height in which it is travelling and also its speed would be provided at an accuracy of ten metres. This is called a regional navigation system because it will wholly be used by Indian users. The applications in the satellite can also provide datas on disaster management,tracking of vehicles,guiding hikers and travelers and also visual and voice navigation for drivers.