PSLV C55 carrying 2 Singapore satellites blasts off from Sriharikota

SRIHARIKOTA: ISRO's PSLV C55 rocket carrying two Singapore satellites lifted off from the spaceport here on Saturday.

In its dedicated commercial mission through NSIL, ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle carried with it TeLEOS-2 as primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite that would be deployed into low earth orbit.

The 44.4 metre tall rocket blasted off from the first launch pad at the end of a 22.5 hour countdown at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, located about 135 km from Chennai.

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. 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.

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.