The Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted to congratulate the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its successful launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C55 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
ISRO’s PSLV-C55 mission was launched on April 22 and marked the space agency’s third major launch of the year. The 228-ton vehicle lifted off and entered a low inclination orbit in the eastward direction. Saturday’s launch was the 57th flight for the PSLV, which has established itself as a reliable and cost-effective option for satellite launches.
The two satellites on board were developed for the Singaporean government and together weighed 757 kilograms. The primary payload was TeLEOS-2, which is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that can provide all-weather, day and night coverage with 1-meter full-polarimetric resolution imaging. The mission also included the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM), a repurposed fourth stage of the rocket that ISRO has developed as an experimental platform for conducting tests with payloads that cannot be separated.
ISRO’s successful launch came just days after SpaceX’s test of its next-generation rocket, the Starship, which exploded. The rocket that was designed for missions to the moon and Mars ignited and blasted upwards for about four minutes, but the separation of the booster from the spacecraft above the rocket failed.
