The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing for its next big commercial mission to launch a Singaporean Earth Observation satellite on April 22. The satellite namedTeLEOS-2 will be launched aboard ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which will take off on its 55th mission.
The TeLEOS-2 is an Earth Observation Satellite, designed to capture round-the-clock, all-weather satellite imagery of the Earth and it will provide a host of data to help with various operations. The ISRO will use the XL variant of PSLV in the upcoming C-55 mission.
Date, Time, and Place
The ISRO is set to launch the TeLEOS-2 satellite on April 22, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The C-55 mission is scheduled to lift off at 2:19 PM on Saturday.
The launch can be viewed by visitors from the Launch View Gallery in Sriharikota. The registration link for the launch has been shared by the ISRO in a tweet.
About the satellite
The TeLEOS 2 is a 750kg earth observation satellite. It features synthetic aperture radar which can provide data in 1-metre resolution. The satellites arrived in India from Singapore in February.
The satellite was developed by ST Engineering and it will provide imagery which will be used for hotspot monitoring and haze management, along with assistance in aviation accidents, search and rescue operations, and more.
About PSLV
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the first Indian launch vehicle with liquid stages. The PSLV is called the 'the Workhorse of ISRO' as it has consistently delivered various satellites to Low Earth Orbits.
The rocket can carry up to 1,750 kg of payload to 600 km altitude. It can also place multiple payloads into orbit with multi-payload adaptors.
ISRO’s missions
This is the third launch of the year for ISRO and all three launches were performed using different launch vehicles. The first launch was in February with the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
The second launch took place in March with the country’s heaviest rocket, LVM3. It placed 36 OneWeb satellites in an orbit on a purely commercial mission.
This is also not the first time the ISRO will be launching a Singaporean satellite from India. It launched three Singaporean satellites with the PSLVC-53 mission in June 2022 and in 2015, the ISRO launched the TeLEOS-1, which was the first Singapore commercial Earth Observation Satellite.
There is another upcoming commercial mission by ISRO with which the space agency is reinforcing the government’s plan to increase India’s share in the commercial space market, which primarily involves building and launching satellites.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
