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India Says Next NavIC Satellite NVS-03 Is Ready for Launch

The government says fixes from the NVS-02 failure have been applied to NVS-03 and the satellite is technically launch-ready with no date announced.

Overview

  • On Wednesday, Union Minister Jitendra Singh told Parliament that NVS-03 is ready for lift-off after corrective measures were incorporated following the NVS-02 orbit-failure.
  • ISRO says the review recommendations from the NVS-02 anomaly were implemented and validated on the CMS-03 mission in November 2025, where pyro systems performed satisfactorily.
  • NavIC currently has only three satellites with working navigation clocks, and at least four operational satellites are required for standalone positioning so user positioning is degraded while timing service continues.
  • There is no scheduled launch date for NVS-03 and India’s launch programme has been on hold since a PSLV mission failed in January, leaving timing for constellation recovery uncertain.
  • The government plans to follow NVS-03 with NVS-04, NVS-05 and one additional satellite to rebuild NavIC’s seven-satellite base layer and users including defence rely on multi-constellation GNSS as a fallback.