The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 from Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) at 14:19 IST on April 22, 2023.
NSIL is leading this dedicated commercial mission, with TeLEOS-2 serving as the principal satellite and Lumelite-4 operating as a co-passenger satellite. The satellites are around 741 and 16 kg in weight, respectively. They are both Singaporean satellites. They are intended to be launched into an orbit with a low eastward inclination.
About the launch vehicle: PSLV-CA
The PSLV-CA was manufactured by ISRO and launched for the first time on April 23, 2007. CA stands for “, and the model first appeared on April 23, 2007. PSLV-CA has 15 successful launches and 0 failure launches in a total of 15 launches.
The CA model does not feature the six strap-on boosters utilised by the PSLV standard configuration. The fourth stage of the CA variant consumes 400 kg less propellant than the standard version. It can now launch 1,100 kilogrammes into a Sun-synchronous orbit of 622 km.
TeLEOS-2
The TeLEOS-2 satellite is being developed in partnership with the Singapore government’s DSTA and ST Engineering (Satellite Systems). It will be used to support the satellite imagery demands of multiple agencies once it is constructed and operating.
TeLEOS-2 carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload. TeLEOS-2 will be capable of imaging at 1m full-polarimetric resolution and will provide day and night coverage in all weather conditions. It will include a 500 GB onboard recorder for recording acquired data and an 800 Mbps downlink.
In 2015, ISRO launched TeLEOS-1, Singapore’s first commercial Earth Observation Satellite, into low Earth orbit for remote sensing applications. ISRO has launched nine satellites for Singapore thus far.
Lumelite-4
The Lumelite-4 satellite was built in collaboration with A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) and the National University of Singapore’s Satellite Technology and Research Centre (STAR). Lumelite-4 is a high-performance 12U satellite that will be used to demonstrate the High-Performance Space-borne VHF Data Exchange System (VDES). It plans to use the VDES communication payload developed by I2R and STAR’s scalable satellite bus architecture to improve Singapore’s e-navigation maritime safety and to aid the global shipping community.
POEM-2
The PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) is part of the mission, and it employs the discarded PS4 stage of the launch vehicle as an orbital platform to conduct scientific experiments with non-separating payloads. The payloads are owned by ISRO/Department of Space, Bellatrix, Dhruva Space, and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
ISRO’s missions
This is ISRO’s third launch of the year, with each mission using a different launch vehicle. In February, the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) was employed for the first launch. In March, the country’s heaviest rocket, LVM3, was deployed for the second launch. It sent 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit on a solely commercial mission.