Spacetech Startup Pixxel Reveals Date For Commercial Satellite Constellation, To Be Launched Early Next Year

Pixxel, a spacetech startup, has announced the debut of its commercial satellite constellation. Fireflies, a constellation of six hyperspectral spacecraft, is scheduled to launch early next year.

In a statement, the startup stated that the satellite constellation will boast more than 150 spectral bands, a native five-meter resolution, and a 40-kilometer wide swath (sensors covering a distance of 40 km), allowing Pixxel to “access any part of the globe on a daily basis” and offer “unparalleled imaging capabilities”.

Pixxel, founded in 2018 by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, is developing a constellation of hyperspectral earth satellites to provide imaging services to clients in agriculture, mining, and the environment, among other areas.

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Previously, media reports indicated that the business intends to raise the number of satellites in the Fireflies constellation to 24 by 2025. Each of these satellites is planned to weigh roughly 50 kg, a major increase from the 15 kg weight of its demo satellites, Shakuntala and Anand, which were launched in 2022.

The Bengaluru-based business stated that data from the Fireflies constellation will be used in a variety of applications, including early detection of crop illnesses, identifying water stress, tracking deforestation in real time, and monitoring ocean pollution.

“This constellation is a significant milestone in Pixxel’s quest to provide precise and actionable insights about the planet to all… “Fireflies is designed to capture the world in ways we’ve never seen before, providing us with the clarity and detail required to make impactful decisions for a better future,” Pixxel cofounder and CEO Awais Ahmed said.

Pixxel has raised over $71 million in funding to date, with investors including Google, Radical Ventures, Accenture, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, and growX.

This comes just a few months after the Bengaluru-based spacetech business received a new contract from NASA to provide hyperspectral Earth observation data to the space agency and the US government.

Earlier this year, the company struck an agreement with the Indian Ministry of Defence under the Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX) program to produce miniaturized multi-payload satellites for the Indian Air Force.

According to data over the internet, India is home to around 150 spacetech startups that raised more than $285 million between 2014 and 2023. The company operates in the expanding Indian spacetech market, which is expected to reach $77 billion by 2030.