---
title: "IRNSS (NavIC): India's Navigation Satellites"
description: "IRNSS, branded NavIC, is India's seven-satellite regional navigation system run by ISRO, offering 20-metre accuracy across India and a 1,500 km buffer."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/irnss"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is an autonomous satellite navigation constellation built by ISRO to provide positioning over India and a 1,500 km surrounding region.
- How does IRNSS differ from GPS?
- What is the difference between NavIC and GAGAN?
- Why did IRNSS originally use the S-band, and why is that changing?
- What accuracy does IRNSS provide and over what area?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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## Timeline

1. 1 July 2013

   The first satellite, IRNSS-1A, launched aboard a PSLV-XL on , and the seven-satellite set was completed with IRNSS-1G on 28 April 2016, after which Prime Min…

2. 28 April 2016

   The first satellite, IRNSS-1A, launched aboard a PSLV-XL on 1 July 2013, and the seven-satellite set was completed with IRNSS-1G on , after which Prime Minis…

3. 29 May 2023

   A second-generation series began with NVS-01 (IRNSS-1J), launched on aboard a GSLV, carrying an indigenously developed rubidium atomic clock and adding an L…

## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

Controversies and constraints have shadowed the programme. The reliance on imported rubidium atomic clocks — the same Swiss-built units that failed across multiple Galileo and IRNSS satellites — drove a sustained indigenisation effort now realised in the NVS series. The original choice of S-band for the civilian signal limited adoption because global smartphone chipsets defaulted to the L1 frequency, a gap the second generation closes by adding L1. Questions also persist over the resilience of a seven-satellite constellation, which offers little redundancy against simultaneous failures, and over whether the service area should expand toward a quasi-global footprint to support Indian maritime and overseas strategic interests. ISRO has signalled intent to enlarge the constellation toward eleven satellites.

### Opponents

The ground segment is anchored by the IRNSS Navigation Centre (INC) at Byalalu near Bengaluru, supported by a distributed network of ranging and timing stations, telemetry-tracking-and-command stations, and CDMA ranging stations across India. Operationally, the ground stations continuously track each satellite, compute orbital ephemerides and clock corrections, upload the navigation message, and maintain the system time scale against rubidium atomic clocks carried aboard the satellites. A receiver acquires signals from a minimum of four satellites to resolve the three spatial coordinates plus a clock bias. Because the S-band signal experiences lower ionospheric delay variability than higher-frequency bands and is less congested for the regional footprint, ISRO incorporated it alongside L5 to improve robustness — though it also created an interoperability challenge with mass-market chipsets historically built only for the L1 band used by GPS.

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Example

In April 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named the completed seven-satellite IRNSS constellation "NavIC" after ISRO launched IRNSS-1G aboard a PSLV from Sriharikota.

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