New Delhi/Bangalore, May 21 (IANS) India's aviation-based navigation capabilities were boosted Saturday with the launch of Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) mega geostationary satellite GSAT-8 from the South American state of French Guiana, said a senior official.

 
 
 "The statellite carried a very key component for the Gagan project. This particular component would provide tremendous benefits in navigation of aircraft," a senior official with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) told IANS from Bangalore.
 
 According to the official, the component would be used for providing pilots with real-time information on the best possible routes to chart their course to various destinations.
 
 "The information will be in real-time for the pilots. Like a GPS system that we use in cars, it would be used for planes."
 
 Major benefits are also in store for the aviation industry which is grappling with high cost of jet fuel, as the Gagan system will provide fuel-saving routes and quick course correction.
 
 "Airlines can save fuel, chart the best possible routes, with a nearly 100 percent accuracy," he said.
 
 The GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or Gagan, meaning deep blue sky in Hindi, is a Rs.774 crore project being implemented in three phases which was started in 2008 by the AAI with the help of the ISRO's technology and support.
 
 The operational objective of Gagan is to provide navigational aid for all stages of flight over the Indian airspace and in the adjoining areas.
 
 The launch was one of the final stages of the project's completion which would place India in the select group of the US, European Union and Japan which have their own version of this type of a system.
 
 Weighing 1,426 kg (dry mass) in space, the cuboid shaped spacecraft has 24 high-power Ku-band transponders as its payload for direct-to-home (DTH) services from July 1 by state-run and private broadcasters after its induction into the Indian satellite (INSAT) system.
 
 GSAT-8 was spinning in an orbit early Saturday after an Ariane-V rocket, which belongs to the European Space Agency, successfully lifted then heavy satellite off the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.