New Delhi: GalaxEye has fully built and tested its Drishti OptoSAR satellite, and has prepped it for shipping to the launch pad. This is the first OptoSAR satellite in the world, that combines electro-optical multispectral imaging with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and is the largest privately-built satellite from India so far, as well as the highest-resolution one. The multispectral imager captures more colours than the standard three or four typically used in consumer cameras, and the SAR payload has the capability of imaging the surface in all weather and lighting conditions. The startup was incubated at IIT Madras.
World’s First #OptoSAR Satellite & India’s largest Privately Built Satellite is on its way to the launchpad 🚀
For 4.5 years, we lived in the gap between a “world’s first” vision and a thousand “it’s not possible” warnings. Building deep-tech IP led startup with limited funds… pic.twitter.com/sg0Uo0KU82— Suyash Singh (@thesuyashsingh) March 3, 2026
Dhrishti weighs about 155 kgs, and is the first in a constellation of between eight and 12 satellites that GalaxEye plans to deploy by 2029. The data is meant for use by governments, defence agencies and industries, with an artificial intelligence-infused platform to perform geospatial analysis for a wide range of applications, including border surveillance, monitoring infrastructure, insurance assessments, agricultural forecast, tracking water quality, and measuring ecosystem health. The satellite can identify camouflage, detect changes and identify objects, and has undergone testing at the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, where ISRO builds and tests its satellites.
Drishti to launch on a SpaceX Rocket
GalaxEye is using Nvidia’s Jetson Orin embedded computing module for on-board intelligence. Earlier in the year, GalaxEye signed an agreement with the commercial arm of ISRO, New Space India Limited (NSIL), where NSIL will resell GalaxEye’s entire product portfolio globally. GalaxEye also signed an agreement in February with the US-based impulso.space for launching the Drishti satellite on a SpaceX rocket. Co-founder and CEO of GalaxEye, Suyash Singh had said, “Mission Drishti is at the heart of our growth strategy, and collaborating with impulso.space empowers us to not only streamline our path to orbit but also amplify our reach into new markets. This alliance will significantly enhance our operational capabilities, allowing us to serve diverse industries, from agriculture and defence to disaster management, with unmatched precision and reliability.”