The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is set for the commercial launch of Singaporean Earth Observation satellite TeLEOS-02 and Lumelite-4 on board the workhorse PSLV on Saturday.
What is TeLEOS-02?
Weighing 750 kg, TeLeOS-02 is an Earth Observation Satellite which will capture all-weather satellite images that will be used by the Singaporean government. The satellites arrived in India in February.
It will also be used for hotspot mining and haze management, along with assistance in aviation accidents, search and rescue operations, etc., and it is capable of imaging at a 1m full-polarimetric resolution.
The satellite will have a 500GB onboard recorder for gathering data captured and a high-speed 800 Mbps downlink.
In 2015, the ISRO launched the TeLEOS-1, the first Singapore commercial Earth Observation Satellite, using India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). TeLEOS-1 was launched into Earth orbit for remote sensing applications. The Indian spaceport has so far launched nine satellites belonging to Singapore.
Meanwhile, Lumelite-4 is a nanosatellite developed by Singaporean academia and is an advanced 12U satellite designed for the technology demonstration of the High-Performance Space-borne VHF Data Exchange System (VDES).
"It aims to augment Singapore's e-navigation and maritime safety and benefit the global shipping community," the ISRO said.
PSLV's C-55 Mission
As per the ISRO, this will be the 57th flight of the PSLV and the 16th mission using the PSLV Core Alone configuration. The PSLV-C55 mission will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota at 2:19 pm, the ISRO informed in its briefing.
After Saturday's launch of two Singaporean satellites, the number of foreign satellites launched by the ISRO will increase to 424. As of now, it is 422.
This will also be the ISRO's third launch in 2023, with all three using different launch vehicles.
In March, India launched an LVM 3-M3 (Launch Vehicle Mark 3) rocket with 36 satellites to low Earth orbit in a purely commercial mission. In February, India successfully put three new light satellites into orbit after launching them on the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) carrier rocket.