In a successful mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C55 (PSLV-C55) with two Singaporean satellites for Earth observation. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on April 22 at 14:19 hours.
The two satellites, TeLEOS-2 and LUMELITE-4, were placed precisely into their intended 586 km circular orbit. The TeLEOS-2 satellite, developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore. The LUMELITE-4 satellite is co-developed by the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) of A*STAR and Satellite Technology and Research Centre (STAR) of the National University of Singapore. LUMELITE4 is an advanced 12U satellite developed for the technological demonstration of the High-Performance Space-borne VHF Data Exchange System (VDES). It aims to augment Singapore's e-navigation maritime safety and benefit the global shipping community. The PSLV C55 mission also had the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM), where the spent PS4 stage of the launch vehicle would be utilized as an orbital platform to carryout scientific experiments through non-separating payloads.
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The mission marks the 57th successful mission of PSLV and the 16th mission for ISRO using the PSLV Core Alone configuration.