Rocket turns laboratory; PSLV, POEM 2 mission successful

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ISRO's PSLV Orbital Experiment Module (POEM) 2 has reached space. The PSLV C55 rocket, which flew into space to launch two Singapore satellites, was converted into a small laboratory after completing the launch mission. It will float in the sky for a month. It consists of 7 payloads jointly developed by ISRO, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and startups Bellatrix and Dhruva Space. Experiments will be conducted in polar earth orbit with this.

The launch was completed at 14:19 hours IST, ISRO said. Singapore's TeLEOS-2 satellite was launched in the 19th minute. Singapore's second satellite LUMELITE4 was launched 5 minutes later. After two minutes, the passivation of nitrogen oxide mixtures from PS-4, the final part of the satellites, was carried out using Monomethylhydrazine. This is a chemical process to reduce the compression in the tanks to prevent an explosion. After this, the two solar panels attached to the PS-4 opened up. The laboratory was ready for operation after it started generating electricity.