Surveying, Mapping and GIS

Several Indian journals, such as the Deccan Herald, NewKerala.com, and others are reporting that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced the planned launch of a constellaton of eight regional navigational satellites, to serve India.

This system, dubbed Indian Regional Navigation System (IRNS) will work in addition to GAGAN (GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation), which goes live next year, based on NAVSTAR and GLONASS satellites.

Additionally the article makes note that ISRO is responsible for the launch of 6 Russian GLONASS satellites, three of which ISRO is also responsible for building.

Incidentally, India is a signatory to the GALILEO project- perhaps they are just hoping to hedge their bets, or more likely, hoping to capture some of the launch business.

So in the past month, we have news of launches and planned activity from NAVSTAR, GLONASS, GALILEO, UK Ministry of Defense, Kazakhstan, and multiple programs in India. I think the question of dependence on US NAVSTAR GPS is rapidly becoming moot, and the commercial business model of Galileo may rapidly be dwindling in market share potential.