Billionaire Elon Musk Congratulates ISRO For PSLV-C55 Launch

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday congratulated Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of the 228-tonne PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2.

The liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space in Sriharikota into an eastward low inclination orbit was 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 kilogram and 16 kilogram, respectively. Both belong to Singapore.

“PSLV- C55/TeLEOS-2 mission is accomplished successfully. In a textbook launch, the vehicle placed TeLEOS-2 and LUMELITE-4 satellites precisely into their intended 586 km circular orbit,” tweeted ISRO.

While the TeLEOS-2 satellite was developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering,  LUMELITE-4 satellite was 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.

Once deployed and operational TeLOS-2 will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore, ISRO mentioned in a press release. “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,” it said.

On the other hand, TeLEOS-2 carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload. It will be able to provide all-weather day and night coverage, and capable of imaging at 1m full-polarimetric resolution.

Hyderabad-based Ananth Technologies Ltd., also played a role in this ISRO launch as it became the first private sector company to completely carry out the Launch Vehicle Integration & Checkout for the mission.