Chennai, Nov. 1 -- A lot will be riding on the Indian rocket LVM3 tomorrow evening and not just the country's strategic satellite GSAT-7R or CMS-03.
The 24-hour countdown for the rocket launch began at about 5.25 pm today at the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh, senior officials said.
For one, the launch on Sunday comes after two successive costly failures of strategic satellites -- viz earth observation satellite EOS-09 on 18.5.2025 (loss of about Rs.850 crore), and the navigation satellite NVS-02 on 29.1.2025 (Rs.300 crore).
The loss of these two critical satellites - especially NVS-02, which was meant to replace the ageing IRNSS-1E in India's regional navigation system - represents not just a technical failure but a strategic...