ISRO expected to touch 424 foreign satellite launches on Saturday

Chennai: The Indian space agency on Saturday is likely to successfully launch two Singaporean satellites with its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), taking the total number of foreign satellites put into orbit to 424.

On April 22 afternoon, the core alone variant of the PSLV rocket (code named as PSLV-C55) will be carrying two Singaporean earth observation satellites – TeLEOS-2 weighing 741 kg, and the 16 kg Lumilite-4.

These two apart, there will be seven non-separable experimental payloads which would be part of the rocket’s final stage (PS4).

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) uses the final stage (PS4) of the PSLV rocket as an orbital platform for in-orbit experiments and has named it as PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM).

According to ISRO, the non-separable payloads will be powered by a command, after the two Singaporean satellites are separated.

The platform will have a solar panel mounted around the PS4 tank which will be deployed after confirmation of the stage achieving stabilisation.

The deployment of the solar panels will be through a ground command. The platform will ensure that the deployed solar panel points towards the Sun optimally using appropriate sun pointing mode, which will increase the power generation capability of the platform.

The power will be provided to payloads and avionic packages based on their requirements, the ISRO said.

The PSLV-C55 rocket is scheduled to blast off at 2.19 pm on Saturday from the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh.

Just over 19 minutes into its flight, the PSLV-C55 will orbit the TeLEOS-2 satellite and it will be followed by Lumilite-4 soon after.

With the launch of 36 OneWeb satellites in March this year, ISRO had launched 422 foreign satellites till day. The number is expected to go up on Saturday.