BENGALURU: The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), under the Union Government’s Department of Space, on Tuesday announced the selection of a consortium led by Bengaluru-based PixxelSpace India (PSI) for developing India’s first indigenous constellation of earth observing (EO) satellites under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
IN-SPACe’s partnership with the consortium is aimed at designing, building and operating India’s first fully indigenous constellation of 12 state-of-the-art commercial EO satellites. The consortium, apart from PSI, will comprise Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India and Dhruva Space.
The selection of this consortium was based on a competitive bidding process and three consortia were shortlisted after a technical evaluation. Besides the PSI-led consortium, there were two other consortia – Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad (with Bharat Electronics Limited, Sisir Radar and Spectragaze Systems), and GalaxEye Space, Bengaluru (with CoreEL).
‘Earth observation sat constellation will be deployed in phases’
Following the financial bid assessment, PixxelSpace India-led consortium emerged as the successful bidder.
Officials from IN-SPACe said this is the first such initiative in the Indian space sector wherein a private consortium will invest Rs 1,200 crore for the next five years to launch a constellation of 12 state-of-the-art EO satellites, equipped with panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors.
The officials said the constellation will deliver Analysis Ready Data (ARD) and Value-Added Services (VAS) for applications in climate change monitoring, disaster management, agriculture, infrastructure, marine surveillance, national security and urban planning. It will also cater to the rising demand of high-quality geospatial intelligence. The generation of high-resolution, indigenous satellite data will reduce reliance on foreign sources. This will not just strengthen India’s position in the global space market, but will also ensure data sovereignty.
The PPP model is designed in such a manner that India will provide technical, strategic and policy support, and the private firms will own and operate the EO system, including the satellite manufacturing, ground infrastructure, commercialisation of data services and launch from India.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the partnership, Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe, said the 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 will serve the national and global markets,” he said.
Rajeev Jyoti, Director, Technical Directorate, IN-SPACe, said this will lead to indigenous generation of high-resolution optical and radar data for India, catalyse innovation, create thousands of high-skill jobs, and contribute directly to the goal of growing India’s space economy from $8.4 billion in 2022 to $44 billion by 2033.
Awais Ahmed, CEO, PSI, said the EO satellite constellation will be deployed in a phased manner over the next four years to ensure continuous service upgrades and expanded coverage. “Once operational, it will be among the most advanced EO systems in the world, designed, built and operated entirely in India by Indian talent,” he added.