indiatester
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The Rubidium atomic clocks should have a lifetime of atleast 12 years. With that being the case, the gap between manufacturing to launch is going to be fairly small.The same problem with the atomic clocks as reported in the Galileo navigation system as well, not surprising since they were sourced from the same company. In their case 9 of their clocks have developed snags, but then they have 18 satellites up there.
It should be noted that these are IRNSS-1A clocks that have developed snags. This was the first of the IRNSS satellites to be launched in 2013, the clocks failed after three and a half years.
It's unclear if the clocks for the subsequent satellites were ordered all at once or in batches. If it's only the first lot that had these glitches, then the other satellites should be OK. But if the entire lot is faulty, we may start seeing the clocks on other sats start failing in the enxt few years, assuming that the clock performance seems to degrade after three and a half years.
In that case, the entire system will need to be replaced- both IRNSS and Galileo.