Pixxel, Digantara launch satellites to monitor earth, space objects

The satellites were launched at 1915 GMT, just after midnight in India, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, a live telecast from SpaceX showed. The launch marks a milestone for the country's growing private space sector and for Google-backed Pixxel, a five-year-old startup.

New Delhi/Bengaluru: Two Indian space start-ups -- Pixxel and Digantara -- on Wednesday announced the launch of their satellites onboard a SpaceX rocket to closely monitor the earth and objects orbiting around it, marking a new era for the private firms in the space sector.

Pixxel became the first private company in India to have its own constellation of satellites using the cutting-edge hyper-spectral frequency that allows observation of the earth in over 150 bands, a technology that is useful in sectors as diverse as agriculture and defence.

Digantara Aerospace announced the launch of the world's first commercial satellite - Space Camera for Object Tracking (SCOT) - for surveillance of objects as small as 5 cm orbiting the earth to ensure safer space operations.

Surveillance of outer space or situational space awareness (SSA) is important to ensure the safety of spacecraft as orbits around the earth become crowded with artificial satellites as well as space debris.

Pixxel's three Fireflies, currently the world's highest-resolution commercial-grade hyperspectral satellites, are six times sharper than the 30-meter standard and are capable of capturing fine details previously invisible to conventional systems.

"For the first time a 5 meter hyperspectral is available. That is what makes it unique, not just in India, but globally," Pixxel co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed told PTI.

Pixxel plans to launch three more Firefly satellites over the next two months and follow it up with 18 more in future.

"This milestone by Pixxel, marks a significant step forward, as hyperspectral satellite imaging has a potential to play a transformative role for many use cases, especially the defence sector. The advanced hyperspectral imaging capabilities of these satellites are poised to unlock new possibilities," Lt Gen A K Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), told PTI.

Lt Gen Bhatt said Digantara's SCOT satellite was a crucial stepping stone to ensure a more sustainable space environment and to tackle the growing issue of space debris and congestion, which pose a greater threat as the number of man-made objects in space increase in future.

Digantara CEO Anirudh Sharma said SCOT aimed to enhance space safety, optimise traffic management and bolster national security initiatives.

From the sun-synchronous orbit, SCOT will track objects in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with greater efficiency than existing sensors, which are constrained by weather conditions, geographic limitations and restricted fields of view.

"Unlike these traditional systems, SCOT offers persistent monitoring of Resident Space Objects, detecting and tracking objects as small as 5 cm," a company statement said.

As one of the world's first commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites, SCOT is engineered to track Resident Space Objects (RSOs) with unmatched frequency and precision.

SCOT forms a key part of Digantara's mission to establish a hybrid network of surveillance systems, delivering persistent monitoring of the near-Earth environment to ensure improved safety and the long-term sustainability of space operations.

The cutting-edge resolution of Fireflies enable them to detect subtle changes in chemical compositions, vegetation health, water quality and even atmospheric conditions with unmatched accuracy, Pixxel co-founder and CTO Kshitij Khandelwal said at the headquarters of the start-up in Bengaluru.

While traditional earth observation satellites rely on broader spectral bands, the Firefly's narrowband sensors uncover hidden patterns and anomalies critical for applications, ranging from agriculture to climate action, he said.

Pixxel already has signed up more than 60 clients, including the US National Reconnaissance Organization, companies like Rio Tinto, British Petroleum, and the Union Ministry of Agriculture, who are receiving hyper-spectral data from its technology demonstration satellites.