The core alone variant of the PSLV was used to launch the satellites for the foreign customers

In yet another feather in its cap, ISRO successfully launched the PSLV C-55 rocket carrying two Singaporean satellites and 7 non-separating Indian payloads into space on April 22, 2023 at 14:19 hours IST from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. ISRO Chairman said it was a typical text-book launch achieved by the PSLV C-55 vehicle.

It is worthy to note, that the 4th stage of PSLV is being used as a Orbital Experimental Platform to conducts test of new technologies developed by ISRO students, academia and the start-up communities. Reports are awaited on the performance of the orbital platform in the coming days.

This is a dedicated commercial mission through NSIL with TeLEOS-2 as primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite. The satellites weigh about 741 kg and 16 kg, respectively. Both belong to Singapore. They were launched into an Eastward low inclination orbit.

TeLEOS-2

The TeLEOS-2 satellite is developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering. Once deployed and operational, it will 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. TeLEOS-2 will be able to provide all-weather day and night coverage, and capable of imaging at 1m full-polarimetric resolution.

LUMILITE-4

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). Using the VDES communication payload developed by I2R and STAR’s scalable satellite bus platform, it aims to augment Singapore’s e-navigation maritime safety and benefit the global shipping community.

POEM-2

The mission has 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. The payloads belong to ISRO/Department of Space, Bellatrix, Dhruva Space, and Indian Institute of Astrophysics.