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Four firms to build India’s first satellite constellation
On Tuesday, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), under the department of space, announced that Bengaluru space technology company PixxelSpace India, along with Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India, and Dhruva Space will design, build, and operate 12 state-of-the-art EO satellites under a public-private partnership (EO-PPP) model.
A private consortium will build India’s first indigenous commercial Earth Observation (EO) satellite network, a fillip for the domestic private space sector that is expected to slash the country’s reliance on foreign players.
On Tuesday, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), under the department of space, announced that Bengaluru space technology company PixxelSpace India, along with Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India, and Dhruva Space will design, build, and operate 12 state-of-the-art EO satellites under a public-private partnership (EO-PPP) model.
Over the next five years, the consortium will invest more than ₹1,200 crore to launch the EO satellite constellation, which will fit a raft of use-cases, from monitoring the climate crisis, aiding disaster management, to planning agriculture, infrastructure, marine surveillance, national security, and urban planning.
In-SPACe, an interface between ISRO and non-governmental entities, said the EO constellation will be deployed in phases over the next four years to ensure continuous service upgrades and expanded coverage. “Once operational, it will be among the most advanced EO systems in the world, designed, built, and operated entirely in India by Indian talent,” IN-SPACe said in a media statement.
The development of indigenous EO satellites that will generate high-resolution, indigenous satellite data reduce India’s reliance on foreign sources and ensure data sovereignty.
IN-SPACe chairperson Pawan Goenka said, “It demonstrates the capability and confidence of Indian companies to lead large-scale, technologically advanced, and commercially viable space missions that serve both national and global markets.”
The Centre’s target is to boost India’s space economy from $8.4 billion in 2022 to $44 billion by 2033. Under the PPP framework, the Indian government will provide strategic, technical, and policy support, while the PixxelSpace India-led consortium will own and operate the EO system, including satellite manufacturing, launches from Indian soil, ground infrastructure, and commercialisation of data services, read the media statement.
With advanced remote sensing techniques and a radar system (Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR) that can map high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface, the satellite network will deliver data that is analysed for precision agriculture, water quality monitoring, land-use mapping, environmental compliance, disaster assessment, and infrastructure development.
IN-SPACe shortlisted three consortiums — Astra Microwave Products from Hyderabad (with Bharat Electronics Limited, Sisir Radar and Spectragaze Systems) GalaxEye Space from Bengaluru (with CoreEL) and PixxelSpace India from Bengaluru (with Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India, and Dhruva Space).
Pixxel CEO Awais Ahmed said, “This win is a testament to India’s vision for a vibrant space economy. From here, we aim to deliver insights from space that improve life on Earth for generations to come.”
Piersight co-founder and CEO Gaurav Seth said SAR makes the constellation operational throughout the day, all-year-round in all weather conditions.
“Our role is to deliver radar-first, analysis-ready products with low latency, so agencies and enterprises get alerts and evidence, not just raw data,” he said.
