'All seven satellites of IRNSS to be in orbit by March 2016'

Thiruvananthapuram: All seven satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), will be in orbit by March next year, ISRO Chairman A S Kiran said here Thursday.

"By March next year, all seven satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System will be in orbit," he said on the sidelines of an award presentation function here.

IRNSS will provide India with its own Global Positioning System, he said.

The IRNSS constellation has seven satellites in all and four are already in orbit.

Kumar said the three remaining IRNSS satellites - IRNSS 1E, 1F and 1G - will be launched in January, February and March respectively.

He said the GSAT-15 communication satellite would be launched on board an Ariane-5 rocket of Arianespace - the European multinational space agency based in France - on November 10.

ISRO also planned to scale up missions using the GSLV Mk-II rocket to twice a year from 2016 onwards, he added.

Kumar said ISRO would launch six satellites for Singapore in December and added that the Chandrayan 2 mission would be in 2018.

"ISRO is well equipped to meet the challenges in space sector," he said.