NVS-03, also designated IRNSS-1L, is India's next navigation satellite, scheduled to launch on GSLV-F18 from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, in a window of 15 to 20 October 2026. ISRO has not published an exact liftoff time, and public launch databases still carry the mission at month-level precision, so the window is a plan rather than a confirmed timestamp.
The launch matters because NavIC cannot currently provide a standalone position fix. A receiver needs at least four satellites to solve for position, and NavIC has three working navigation satellites — IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01. NVS-03 is the fourth. Six first-generation IRNSS satellites remain in orbit but lost their rubidium atomic clocks and are limited to short messaging, IRNSS-1H never reached its orbit in 2017, and NVS-02 has been stranded since January 2025 when the pyro valve for its orbit-raising engine failed to fire. NavIC's timing service still works.
NVS-03 weighs about 2,232 kg, is built on ISRO's I-2K platform and is bound for a geosynchronous slot at 32.5° East — the station held by the clock-failed IRNSS-1F. It carries a navigation payload in the L1, L5 and S bands, an indigenously developed rubidium atomic clock from the Space Applications Centre, a CDMA ranging transponder and an enhanced encryption system for restricted-service users.
ISRO is targeting 15 to 20 October 2026 for the NVS-03 launch aboard GSLV-F18 from the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The satellite has been at the spaceport since August 2026 and vehicle stacking began in mid-September 2026. No exact liftoff time has been published, and the date has moved before, so this page shows the window and the days remaining to it rather than a second-by-second countdown.
NavIC's positioning service is currently unavailable. Satellite navigation is a timing measurement, so a receiver needs signals from at least four satellites to solve for latitude, longitude, altitude and time. Only IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01 are operational for navigation today. NVS-03 restores the fourth, which is the minimum for a standalone fix — a working service, not a robust one, since the design intent was seven satellites.
In orbit is not the same as usable. IRNSS-1A, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G are all still in orbit but suffered rubidium atomic clock failures and are limited to short-message service. IRNSS-1H was lost in 2017 when its heat shield did not separate. IRNSS-1B and IRNSS-1I are operational. NVS-01, the first second-generation satellite, is operational and was the first to add the L1 band. NVS-02 reached orbit in January 2025 but its orbit-raising engine never fired because the pyro valve on the oxidiser line did not open, leaving it stranded. Live positions and real-time dilution of precision for every NavIC satellite in orbit are on the NavIC satellite tracker.
Every navigation satellite is a very accurate clock in orbit: an error of one microsecond becomes about 300 metres of position error on the ground. The imported rubidium clock units in the first generation of NavIC failed satellite after satellite, beginning with IRNSS-1A in 2017. The second generation answers that directly — NVS-01 and NVS-03 fly a rubidium atomic clock developed in India by ISRO's Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad. The second change is frequency: first-generation NavIC broadcast only L5 and S band, which almost no consumer chipset received, while second-generation satellites add L1, the band every phone already uses for GPS.
GSLV-F18 is a three-stage GSLV Mk II: a solid S139 core with four liquid L40H strap-on engines at lift-off, a liquid second stage, and an indigenous cryogenic upper stage. It is the same vehicle class that launched NVS-01, NVS-02 and NISAR, and it flies from the Second Launch Pad at SDSC SHAR. The rocket places the satellite in a geosynchronous transfer orbit; ISRO then raises and circularises the orbit with the satellite's own engine over several days before drifting it to the 32.5° East slot.
Yes, once it is catalogued. New launches take one to three days to receive a NORAD catalog number and public orbital elements. This page then shows the estimated live position, altitude and velocity of NVS-03 automatically, propagated from those elements with the SGP4 model. Because the five-digit NORAD catalogue filled up in 2026, NVS-03 may receive a six-digit number written in Alpha-5 form in its two-line element set. Until launch, no position is shown at all — this page never displays a placeholder trajectory or a different satellite in its place.
Indirectly. NVS-03 broadcasts in L1, the band standard GNSS chipsets already receive, so NavIC-capable phones — most Snapdragon devices sold in India since 2020, and iPhones from the 14 series — can use its signal alongside GPS. With only two L1-capable NavIC satellites in service today, a NavIC-only fix is not possible on a phone; NVS-03 adds the third.
ISRO streams its launches on its official YouTube channel and website, normally starting 20 to 30 minutes before liftoff. The ISRO launch schedule page on this site embeds the official webcast as soon as ISRO publishes a link for the mission, and lists no unofficial restreams.
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