Countdown for the PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 mission begins

The 22.5 hour countdown for the launch of two Singapore satellites on board a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) commenced on Friday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, here, the Indian Space Research Organisation said. It is a dedicated commercial mission through NSIL with TeLEOS-2 as primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite that would be deployed into low earth orbit by ISRO's trusted workhorse PSLV C55.

The 44.4 metre tall rocket is scheduled for a lift-off from the first launch pad at 14.19 hrs at the spaceport, located about 135 kms from Chennai.

The TeLEOS-2 is a synthetic aperture radar satellite developed under partnership between Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), representing the Government of Singapore and ST Engineering.



After deployment of the satellite into the about 586 km orbit, it would be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore. The TeLEOS-2 carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload. It would be used to provide all-weather day and night coverage and is capable of imaging at 1 metre full polarimetric resolution for Singapore.

The Lumelite-4 satellite is co-developed by the Institute for Infocomm Research and Satellite Technology and Research Centre of the National University of Singapore.

It is an advanced 12U satellite developed for the technological demonstration of the High-Performance Space-borne VHF data Exchange System (VDES). The objective of the satellite is to augment Singapore's e-navigation maritime safety and benefit the global shipping community, ISRO said.

Apart from deploying the two satellites nearly 20 minutes after lift-off, scientists at ISRO have planned to carry out an in-orbit scientific experiment using the spent PS4-stage as an orbital platform through the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM)2 in this mission.

The mission has the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-2 (POEM-2) where the PS4 stage of the launch vehicle would be utilised as an orbital platform to carry out scientific experiments through non-separating payloads.

The seven payloads belong to ISRO, Bellatrix, Dhruva Space and Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

The Payloads on POEM-2 would be powered by scientists, after the primary and co-passenger satellites are separated. The platform would have a solar panel which would be deployed facing towards the Sun to increase its power generation capability. The power would be provided to payloads and avionic packages based on their requirements.

ISRO Chairman S Somanth after successful launch of LVM3 to deploy 36 OneWeb satellites in March said the space agency was working on the another commercial mission and the scientists would be using the new integration facility for PSLV-C55 mission developed at Sriharikota.

The PSLV-C55 mission has been adopted with 'integrate, transfer and launch' concept using the PSLV integration Facility (PIF).

Saturday's mission would be the 57th flight of PSLV and 16th mission using the PSLV Core Alone configuration.

In December 2015, ISRO successfully placed the TeLEOS-1 satellite in the PSLV-C29 mission along with five other satellites of Singapore into a 550 km circular orbit.