Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe
Chennai
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) on Tuesday announced the selection of a consortium led by Google-backed PixxelSpace to design, build and operate India’s first fully-indigenous commercial Earth observation (EO) satellite. The consortium also includes Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India and Dhruva Space.
The consortium will invest more than ₹1,200 crore over the next five years to launch a constellation of 12 EO satellites equipped with panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors.
The EO constellation will be deployed in a phased manner over the next four years. It will deliver analysis ready data (ARD) and value-added services (VAS) for applications in climate change monitoring, disaster management, agriculture, infrastructure, national security and urban planning among other sectors.
Global reach
“This initiative signals the coming of age of India’s private space industry in the space sector. 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,” said Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe.
The consortium was selected after the assessment of the bids submitted by three consortia including Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad (with Bharat Electronics Ltd, Sisir Radar and Spectragaze Systems), GalaxEye Space, Bengaluru (with CoreEL) and PixxelSpace India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru (with Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India, and Dhruva Space).
“Being the winning proposal to build India’s national EO constellation is a major milestone for Pixxel and our consortium members in India’s space story. We’re grateful to IN-SPACe and the Government of India for trusting our consortium with this historic mission. We look forward to building world-class space-tech capabilities that serve the whole planet from Indian soil,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel.
Published on August 12, 2025
