SRIHARIKOTA (ANDHRA PRADESH) : ISRO celebrated a major milestone with its 100th mission, and Chairman V. Narayanan is now looking ahead with big plans for the future. He shared that the space agency aims to launch over 100 more missions in the next five years.

We have made a historic achievement today, Narayanan said after the successful launch of the GSLV-F15 rocket, which carried the NVS-02 navigation satellite into orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. "This 100th launch was made possible by the hardwork and teamwork of the entire ISRO team," he added.

Although it took 46 years to reach this moment, Narayanan is optimistic about what is to come. "We have many more missions lined up for this year," he said, mentioning that ISRO has already approved three new satellite projects.

He also spoke about the upcoming Kulasekarapattinam spaceport in Tamil Nadu, which will handle micro and nano-satellite launches. "In 2 years, the launch pad will be ready, and we will be able to handle all kinds of missions from there," he said.

Wednesday’s launch was the 17th mission of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and the 11th successful flight using an indigenous cryogenic stage. It was also the 8th operational GSLV mission featuring this indigenous stage.

The NVS-02 satellite plays an important role in India’s Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) system, improving the regional navigation services that provide accurate positioning, velocity, and timing (PVT) data for users in India and neighboring areas. With this launch, NavIC now operates with five satellites instead of four, boosting its reliability and performance.

NavIC offers two types of services: Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which provides position accuracy within 20 meters and timing accuracy of 40 nanoseconds, and Restricted Service (RS), which is designed for more secure use.

Earlier that day, ISRO marked its 100th mission with the smooth launch of the NVS-02, which will support navigation for land, air, and sea activities, as well as applications like precision agriculture.