'Fireflies' Light Up Sky As India Gets 1st Private Satellite Constellation
Overnight, three 'Firefly' satellites were launched into 550-kilometre low Earth orbit, using a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
A Bengaluru-based space startup has made history by giving India the first private earth imaging satellite constellation. The constellation -'Firefly' - has been developed by Pixxel.
Pixxel - which has offices in India and the United States - was started in 2019 by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal while they were still studying at Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani. They have already raised $95 million, becoming one of India's satellite success stories.
Congratulating Pixxel on this milestone, Dr Somanath, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - under whose leadership new age space startups blossomed - told NDTV, I hope that the impact of this hyperspectral imaging capability turns out to be a great boon to the sector.