ISRO Will Next Launch Seven Singaporean Satellites, Including Imaging Satellite For Government, Using PSLV-C56 On 30 July

The next launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is scheduled for 30 July.

The polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV-C56 will be in action, lifting off at 6.30 am (India time) with a primary satellite and six co-passenger satellites on board, all of them Singaporean, from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR).

The mission name "PSLV-C56/DS-SAR" bears the name of the primary satellite being launched by ISRO.

The DS-SAR is a 360 kg satellite developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering.

The PSLV rocket will launch it into a near-equatorial orbit (NEO) at 5 degrees inclination and 535 km altitude.

The satellite is capable of imaging at 1-metre resolution at full polarimetry and will provide for all-weather day and night coverage, thanks to the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.

The DS-SAR will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore.

Additionally, “ST Engineering will use it for multi-modal and higher responsiveness imagery and geospatial services for their commercial customers,” ISRO says on the mission page.

The six co-passenger satellites, as described by ISRO, are:

• VELOX-AM, a 23 kg technology demonstration microsatellite from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

• ARCADE, short for Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer, an experimental satellite from NTU

• SCOOB-II, a 3U nanosatellite flying a technology demonstrator payload, from NTU

• NuLIoN, an advanced 3U nanosatellite from NuSpace Pte Ltd, Singapore, enabling seamless Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity in both urban and remote areas

• Galassia-2, a 3U nanosatellite from the National University of Singapore (NUS) will be in low-Earth orbit

• ORB-12 STRIDER, a satellite developed under an international collaboration by Aliena Pte Ltd, Singapore

The PSLV-C56 mission will be the fifty-eighth flight of the PSLV and the seventeenth mission using the PSLV Core Alone configuration (PSLV-CA).

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) “procured the PSLV-C56 to deploy the DS-SAR satellite from DSTA & ST Engineering, Singapore,” ISRO said in a tweet.

NSIL is a central public sector enterprise under the administrative control of the Department of Space.

It is the commercial arm of ISRO and is tasked with functions such as the production of satellites and launch vehicles, marketing of space-based services, and transfer of domestic space technology.

The previous PSLV mission was the PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 mission, launched on the afternoon of 22 April 2023.

It was also a mission carrying a Singaporean satellite, an Earth-observing satellite, as the primary payload and fulfilled by NSIL.