Isro’s PSLV-C29 to launch 6 Singapore satellites on Wednesday

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) today started a 59-hour countdown for the launch of six Singapore satellites on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C29, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

The launch, using Isro's trusted launch vehicle, PSLV, is scheduled at 6:00 pm on 16 December. This will be PSLV's 32nd flight.

Countdown for the PSLV-C29/TeLEOS-1 mission started at 07:00 hours IST today, after the mission readiness review (MRR) committee and launch authorisation board (LAB) cleared the countdown.

Isro said it has completed filling of mono methyl hydrazine (MMH) propellant of the fourth stage (PS4) by 10:45 hr IST and preparations for mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON-3) oxidiser filling operation of PS4 are under progress.

The PSLV would launch the six satellites into a 550-km circular orbit inclined at 15 degrees to the equator.

Of these, TeLEOS-1 is the primary satellite weighing 400 kg, whereas the other five satellites are smaller ones, which include two mini satellites and three nano-satellites.

These include three from the Nanyang Technological University:

• VELOX-C1, a 123 kg microsatellite for research in tropical environment using radio occultation technique;
• VELOX-II with three payloads - communications payload, GPS experimental payload and fault tolerant payload; and
• Athenoxat-I, a technology demonstrator nano-satellite for Earth remote sensing developed by Mirospace Rapid Pvt5 Ltd based on a 3U-Cubesat form factor and launched as piggyback on a slot;

and two built by National University of Singapore, which include:

• Kent Ridge-1, a 78 kg microsatellite with two primary payloads - a medium resolution VNIR hyperspectral camera (GSD 44m) and a short wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral camera(GSD 110m), with a secondary payload of a real time high resolution video (resolution 6m) camera, all using UHF telemetry link and X-band data downlink as modes of communication; and
• Galassia - a 3.4 kg 2-U- Cubesat with two payloads - one to measure electron count in the atmosphere above Singapore and a small photon-entangling quantum system to acquire quantum corelation data in space using HHF uplink and VHF downlink. 

TeLEOS-1 is the first Singapore commercial earth observation satellite and would be launched into a low Earth orbit for "remote sensing" applications.

To be launched from the first launch pad, this is the 11th flight of PSLV in 'core-alone' configuration without the use of solid strap-on motors.

Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of Isro, has provided launch services in PSLV for 51 customer satellites from 20 countries.