Air Force can launch satellite of startup Pixel by 2025, border surveillance will be strengthened
Pixxel: Awais Ahmed says that 'we are planning to send the satellite into space in mid-2025. He said that the job of Pixxel is to build the satellite and hand it over to the Indian Air Force.
Indian Air Force space start-up Pixxel will hand over the satellite to the Air Force by mid-2025, after which the Air Force can launch it by mid or late 2025. This will increase the Air Force's ability to monitor the country's borders. The Indian Air Force has signed a contract with Bangalore-based company Pixxel Space.
Pixxel was founded by BITS Pilani's young entrepreneurs Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal while pursuing higher education. Awais Ahmed says that 'we are planning to send the satellite into space in mid-2025. He said that the job of Pixxel is to build the satellite and hand it over to the Indian Air Force. The main job of these satellites is to monitor the country's borders. Pixxel has signed a contract with the Air Force under iDEX to supply small multi-payload satellites.
This contract has been done to develop small satellites weighing up to 150 kg for electro-optical, infrared, synthetic aperture radar, and hyper-spectral purposes. Since its inception in 2019, Pixxel has raised $71 million in funding. The company believes that this funding is enough to cover the launch of its 24 satellites. The company plans to launch six satellites this year and 18 satellites next year.
Do you want a satellite picture of your home surroundings? So this may soon be possible as Bangalore-based space start-up Pixxel plans to launch an online software to browse and customize pictures of the Earth taken by its satellites.
Pixxel Space chief executive officer and co-founder Awais Ahmed said the start-up's earth observation studio 'Aurora' is part of efforts to make space-based data accessible to the general public at a very low cost. Pixxel's earth observation studio is expected to go live later this year and hyper-spectral images of Earth taken by its satellites and data analysis will be accessible to all.
Pixxel has launched two satellites - Shakuntala and Ananda - both of which capture images of Earth in more than 200 wavelengths and detect subtle changes on the planet. "In October or November this year, anyone will be able to view images of Earth taken by our satellites by creating an online account on our website, Pixxel.Space/Aurora," Ahmed said. The two satellites - Shakuntala and Ananda - launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX and ISRO's PSLV were pathfinder spacecraft, demonstrating the company's capabilities to deliver high-quality hyper-spectral images.
