Second-generation NavIC satellite launched on GSLV-F15, ISRO's 100th launch from Sriharikota. A valve failure stopped its orbit-raising engine from firing, leaving it stranded in an elliptical transfer orbit instead of its geosynchronous slot, so it cannot provide navigation service.
NVS-02 was launched on GSLV-F15 on 29 January 2025, ISRO's 100th launch from Sriharikota. The rocket delivered it correctly, but the valves that should have let oxidiser into its liquid apogee motor did not open, so the engine could not fire to raise the orbit.
The satellite was left in its elliptical transfer orbit, swinging between a few hundred kilometres and about 37,000 km roughly twice a day, and cannot reach the geosynchronous slot it was built for. It is tracked here from public orbital elements; it does not provide navigation service.
NVS-02 was built to replace IRNSS-1E at 111.75° East in the NavIC constellation. Like NVS-01, it carries navigation payloads in the L1, L5 and S bands and a C-band ranging payload. Its timekeeping relies on a mix of indigenous and imported rubidium atomic clocks.
The satellite is built on ISRO's I-2K bus, weighs 2,250 kg at lift-off and handles about 3 kW of power.
GSLV-F15 lifted off from the Second Launch Pad at Sriharikota at 06:23 IST on 29 January 2025. It was the 17th GSLV flight and the 100th launch from the spaceport. The rocket worked perfectly and placed NVS-02 in a 170 × 37,785 km transfer orbit inclined 20.8°.
The solar panels opened and the satellite talked to the ground, but its orbit-raising engine never fired: the valves that admit oxidiser to the thrusters did not open. An expert committee later concluded that the firing signal never reached the pyro valve on the oxidiser line, most likely because at least one contact in each of the main and backup connector paths had come loose.
ISRO added extra redundancy to the pyro system, and those fixes were flown on CMS-03 in November 2025. NVS-02 stayed in its elongated orbit; the public catalogue lists it as no longer operational.