Indian Space and Research organization (ISRO) will launch six Singapore satellites using its workhorse, PSLV rocket today. The satellites will help gather information on disaster monitoring and urban planning. ISRO will be using its trusted PSLV rocket on its n321 core alone configuration without the solid strap-on motors.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will be blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at the Sriharikota island att 6.00 PM IST today. PSLV-C29 will travel 550 km from the earth’s surface where it will release its payload. The six satellites will be launched one after another at an interval of 30 seconds and 20 km apart to prevent any chance of collision.
The TeLEOS-1 is the primary satellite weighing 400 kgs while the other 5 includes two microsatellites and three nano-satellites.
The TeLEOS is the first Singapore commercial first Earth Observation Satellite. It will be stationed in a low Earth orbit and will be used for remote sensing applications.
Satellites will be orbiting around the equator and will gather data that will be useful the population in the equatorial region. The satellites will be stationed at a 550 km circular orbit and inclined at an angle of 15 degrees from the Equator.
The commercial arm of ISRO, Antrix Corporation has already provided its launch services to more than 51 customer satellites from over 20 countries.
Project Director of the satellite program at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Professor Goh Cher Jiang said that the satellites will be able to produce information at a much higher rate and reliability. It will be very useful in the South East Asian region where there is a high probability of cyclones and earthquakes.
He added that now Singapore will have its own and devoted weather monitoring satellite and the technology, sensors and instruments can be customized to suit our very own needs.
