Fireflies’ Light Up Sky As India Gets 1st Private Satellite Constellation

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.

Overnight, three ‘Firefly’ satellites were launched into 550-kilometre low Earth orbit, using a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Three more satellites will be launched later this year.

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