Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) approves India's first fully commercial Earth observation satellite constellation

Key facts

• The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) approved and signed an agreement with a private consortium for India's first fully commercial Earth observation satellite constellation.
• The consortium, named Allied Orbits Private Limited, is led by Pixxel Space India and includes Dhruva Space, PierSight Space, and Satsure Analytics India.
• The consortium will invest more than Rs 1,200 crore to set up the 12-satellite constellation, which is to be developed and operationalised by 2029.
• The constellation will have panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities, supported by indigenous ground infrastructure.
• All satellites will be manufactured domestically and launched on Indian launch vehicles, with mission control based in India.
• The programme includes five ultra-high resolution optical satellites with 4 bands, three multispectral satellites with 8 bands, two hyperspectral optical satellites with 250 bands, and two SAR satellites in X-band.
• The programme allows collaboration with academic and research institutions for capacity building and application development.