New Delhi: Bengaluru-based New Space startup GalaxEye has announced a launch date for its Drishti Earth Observation Satellite. The satellite has two sensors on board, an optical payload for observing the Earth in wavelengths of light visible to human eyes, as well as a Synthetic Aperture Radar payload that can peer through forest cover and clouds. GalaxEye aims to scale up to a constellation of 10 Earth observing satellites by 2029, providing near-realtime monitoring for the entire planet. After thorough ground testing, the satellite was prepped for launch in March 2026, and then shipped off to America. Drishti will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite weighs 190 kg and will be deployed at al altitude of 500 km. The startup was incubated at IIT Madras, and first demonstrated that Synthetic Aperture Radar could work from a drone in 2022. This was the first Drone SAR flight in the country. Then, GalaxEye demonstrated the same SAR technology using a High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite, or a solar-powered high-altitude fixed-wing drone. The SAR payload was tested from an altitude of 20 km. GalaxEye then tested a SAR payload on ISRO’s POEM-4 platform, providing GalaxEye with flight heritage in space. This payload was successfully demonstrated. GalaxEye funneled all the learnings into the Drishti satellite.
A wide range of applications
Observations by the Drishti satellite have potential applications in border surveillance, utilities and infrastructure monitoring, as well as agriculture and insurance assessment. Conventionally, satellites relay the raw data to the ground for processing, but GalaxEye has equipped Drishti with Nvidia’s Jetson Orin embedded AI computing module, that allows it to run advanced AI workloads directly in orbit. The technology boosts the speed at which Earth observation data is processed, interpreted and delivered to customers. GalaxEye has also recently inked a deal with NSIL, the commercial arm of the Department of Space (DOS), which will be reselling the entire product portfolio of GalaxEye globally.