Indian startup GalaxEye launches ‘Mission Drishti’

• Bengaluru-based space startup GalaxEye’s ‘Mission Drishti’ satellite was launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from California on May 3.

• Mission Drishti is the world’s first OptoSAR satellite, integrating electro-optical (EO) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors into a single operational platform.

• It is the first to combine Multispectral Imaging (MSI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on a single platform, delivering intuitive, reliable, all-weather Earth imagery that is already analysis-ready.

• While EO sensors capture high-resolution images during sunlight and clear skies, SAR sensors provide all-weather and all-time images, using radar pulses.

• The satellite will help address long-standing limitations of conventional systems and enable more reliable and consistent data acquisition across diverse environmental conditions.

• As a dual-use Earth observation satellite, the mission will support use cases across defence, agriculture, disaster management, maritime monitoring, and infrastructure planning.

• Weighing 190 kilograms, Mission Drishti is India's largest privately developed Earth observation satellite. 

• The satellite is also expected to complement India’s broader initiatives, including the 29 active Earth observation satellites outlined in ISRO’s recent annual report.

• The launch came after five years of indigenous research and development, and extensive environmental testing and performance validation of the Mission Drishti.

• GalaxEye aims to scale up Mission Drishti to a constellation of 10 satellites by 2030, developing a robust and sovereign Earth observation infrastructure for India.

• GalaxEye was founded in 2021 by a team of engineers at IIT Madras.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)