Our Bureau
New Delhi
On August 12th, India celebrates the birth anniversary of the father of India’s space program, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). On this auspicious occasion, today IN-SPACe has made a huge announcement stating that they have selected a PixxelSpace India-led consortium.
They will be tasked with building and operating the country’s first fully indigenous commercial Earth Observation (EO) satellite constellation. With this announcement, India takes a big step in the country’s space journey, transitioning from an organisation under the government to a public-private partnership organisation.
The selected consortium consists of PixxelSpace India Pvt. Ltd., Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India, and Dhruva Space. They will invest over Rs 1,200 crore to deploy around 12 advanced EO satellites over the span of the next five years.
The Chairman of IN-SPACe, Dr Pawan Goenka has highlighted that this will mark the beginning of India’s private space industry. He also stated the confidence the announcement shows that they have on Indian companies to take this big step.
“This initiative signals the coming of age of India’s private space industry. 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. The EO-PPP model fosters an ecosystem where public and private capabilities reinforce each other to drive growth, innovation, and self-reliance,” the Chairman of IN-SPACe said.
Awais Ahmed, the CEO of PixxelSpace India, called this announcement a “major milestone” in India’s space journey. He thanked the Government of India and the IN-SPACe for selecting us for this big step.
“Being the winning proposal to build India’s national EO constellation is a proud moment for Pixxel and our consortium members. We’re grateful to IN-SPACe and the Government of India for trusting us with this historic mission. Together with our partners Satsure, Dhruva, and PierSight, we look forward to building world-class space-tech capabilities that serve the whole planet from Indian soil,” Ahmed said.
