SatSure is planning to launch a fleet of remote sensing micro satellites from 2022 to meet the growing need of high-resolution satellite imagery across aviation, banking, insurance and transportation sectors. The satellites will be powered by hybrid-propulsion systems of Bellatrix Aerospace, a startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Science.
SatSure and Bellatrix Aerospace plan to have the first satellite of the proposed constellation launched by December 2022, both firms said on Wednesday.
SatSure will be the second Indian firm after Bengaluru-based Pixxel to look at its own earth observation satellite fleet. Pixxel’s first satellite – Anand is expected to be launched on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (Pslv) in early 2021.
“Many breakthrough technologies will be demonstrated in the first mission, be it the hardware, software, or hardware-software integration. It is a hazardous mission, but then no innovation has ever been done without trial and errors,” Prateep Basu, CEO & Co-Founder at SatSure AG said.
A request for proposal (RFP) for payload design, integration and testing will be made available to the industry in the coming weeks. Both companies are yet to decide on a rocket to launch these satellites.
“With this constellation, SatSure’s proven capabilities in satellite data processing and pipelines will be further augmented with the help of high-resolution real-time imagery. This is also a significant announcement for Bellatrix, as we will be working on more of such missions catering to very niche mission requirements,” Rohan Muralidhar, CEO of Bellatrix Aerospace said.
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