India’s indigenous satellite navigation system has suffered a major setback. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has confirmed that the last atomic clock on IRNSS-1F stopped working on March 13. The satellite completed its scheduled 10-year mission life on March 10.
After this malfunction, this satellite will now be unable to provide accurate navigation services. According to ISRO it will now be used only for one-way broadcast messaging services. Along with this, the capability of India’s indigenous navigation system NavIC has also been affected.
A minimum of four active satellites are required to provide Precise Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services under the NAVIC system. But after the shutdown of the atomic clock of IRNSS-1F, now only three satellites are able to provide full-fledged PNT services, bringing the system below the minimum required limit.
In its official statement, ISRO said, “The IRNSS-1F satellite, launched in March 2016, has completed its 10-year design mission life on 10 March 2026. On 13 March 2026, the procured on-board atomic clock stopped functioning. However, the satellite will continue to operate in orbit to provide one-way broadcast messaging services for various social uses.”
Atomic clock is the most important part of any satellite navigation system. It very accurately measures the time it takes for a signal to travel from the satellite to the receiver. Even if there is a minor error in this, there can be an error of up to hundreds of kilometers in determining the location.
IRNSS-1F had already lost two of its three rubidium atomic clocks and now with the failure of the last backup clock, it is completely out of navigation control. With this incident, 8 out of 11 navigation satellites launched since 2013 have become inoperative for navigation services. Atomic clock failure has been reported in many satellites like IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1C, IRNSS-1D, IRNSS-1E and IRNSS-1G.
Earlier only four satellites IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1F, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01 were providing full PNT services. Now this number has come down to three.
The naval system is considered very strategically important for India. India had decided to develop an indigenous navigation system after the US refused to provide GPS data during the 1999 Kargil war. This system is used in many important areas including railway tracking, disaster management, fishery industry and military operations.
ISRO is now working on a plan to strengthen this network through the second generation NVS satellites. However, in recent years the progress of the program has slowed down due to indigenous development of the atomic clock and some launch-related challenges. According to experts, the reliability of navigational services may be affected until new satellites are deployed.
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