ST Engineering, a Singapore-based engineering firm, has successfully deployed its first polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) satellite, TeLEOS-2, in partnership with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). This satellite was successfully launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle at 1419 hrs (Indian Standard Time) on April 22, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India.
TeLEOS-2 has been equipped with a made-in-Singapore SAR payload, which captures both daytime and nighttime images under all-weather conditions at high resolutions, with full polarimetry for a broad range of satellite data applications. With this launch, ST Engineering aims to enhance its commercial satellite imagery solutions and provide its customers with multi-modal and highly responsive features.
Operating in a near-equatorial orbit at 10 degrees inclination, the 750 kg satellite provides high-resolution 1-meter imagery with an average of 14 passes per day. The satellite offers broader coverage of major shipping routes and disaster-prone and forest-fire regions, which interest Singapore. The TeLEOS-2 will cater for customers engaged in disaster management and monitoring, environmental monitoring, natural resource exploration and management, climate change studies, and weather studies.
With a SAR payload, the TeLEOS-2 enables the satellite to make cloud and precipitation-penetrating images during both day and night times and under all weather conditions. TeLEOS-2 is expected to improve different surfaces’ monitoring, mapping, quantification, and multiparameter details.
Low Jin Phang, President of Digital Systems at ST Engineering, said, “The development and launch of TeLEOS-2 represent another milestone in our journey in building up indigenous capabilities for the expansion and commercialisation of our satellite technologies. It will further propel the growth of Singapore’s space industry and strengthen ST Engineering’s position in the global space market.”
