Singapore: Developing first Earth Observation satellite

Singapore is getting ready to launch its TeLEOS-1 Earth Observation satellite. TeLEOS-1 will be the first Singapore-made commercial satellite. The launch is planned for the end of 2014 on board of the Indian Space Research Organization’s Polar satellite launch vehicle. The satellite will carry an electro-optical camera with 1m ground resolution.

The potential use for these images includes disaster response, environmental monitoring, maritime security and urban planning. TeLEOS-1 was developed by ST Electronics. ST Electronics announced its collaboration with SPOT Asia and Satrec Initiative regarding the distributing of the imagery. It is expected that first images will be available in 2016.

This project is expected to be the first of many as the Singapore government is currently supporting eleven space projects with a budget of around US$12 million.