Dhruva records LEAP-2 deployment with SatLeo payload

Dhruva Space has updated its LEAP-2 mission page to record deployment into orbit at 01:00 IST on October 2, after the spacecraft launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18. LEAP-2 carries SatLeo Labs' TAPAS-1 thermal-imaging payload. The deployment is a changed flight status from the October 1 launch plan previously reported here; it does not establish that TAPAS-1 is operating.

NASA recorded the Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:32 a.m. Pacific time on October 1. Dhruva puts the launch at 00:02 IST on October 2. SpaceX's mission timeline had placed LEAP-2 separation 58 minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff, while Dhruva now lists deployment at 01:00 IST. SpaceX's timeline was a preflight schedule, not a postflight status report.

Dhruva identifies TAPAS-1 as a SatLeo payload hosted on its P-30 spacecraft for an in-orbit demonstration of thermal sensing, calibration and processing. The mission page reports LEAP-2 deployment, but neither it nor the other sources reviewed for this update confirms spacecraft contact, a completed TAPAS-1 test or thermal data from orbit. Those remain the next facts needed to judge the payload's performance.