അമേരിക്കൻ പേറ്റന്റ് സ്വന്തമാക്കി ഗാലക്സ് ഐ: അഞ്ച് വർഷത്തിനുള്ളിൽ വിക്ഷേപിക്കുന്നത് 30 ഉപഗ്രഹങ്ങൾ

The company is India's first startup to be granted a US patent on this technology which combines optical images with synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This provides better image quality despite smoke and clouds in the atmosphere.

“The patent acts as a very foundational element to building larger satellites. And, we are at a point where we want to scale to a large 30 satellite constellation. Now, when we're looking at a constellation of that scale, there are two ways to do it. One is either we become traditional manufacturers and licence technology from abroad or build something that is of difference and value,” Pranit Mehta, cofounder and vice-president of sales told Business Standard in an interaction.

The global commercial satellite imaging market, valued at $6.55 billion in 2024, is projected to more than triple to $20.15 billion by 2033, according to research firm SkyQuest Technology.

The US patent covers GalaxEye’s core invention for the architecture and system used to align and synchronise optical and microwave sensors for simultaneous, spatially and temporally matched data acquisition.

GalaxEye, incubated at IIT Madras, also became the first company to launch its operational OptoSAR satellite in space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, known as Mission Drishti.

While the launch took place in May and the satellite was in the commissioning phase, a solar storm in July derailed the company’s plans.

Mehta said, “The satellite was functioning great. We were constantly in touch with it and had run a whole lot of operations. Any satellite that gets launched goes through a couple of months of commissioning, stabilises itself, then captures some images, which are calibrated and that's when you go commercial. While we had met almost 85 per cent of our objectives, the storm impacted one of the critical systems that led to loss of communication.”

He added that but for the storm, the company would have started serving its clients as it has already signed up a global network of channel partners covering more than 80 countries. This has hindered its ability to cater to the huge demand across sectors such as defence, agriculture, infrastructure, insurance, maritime intelligence and disaster management.

With two new satellite launches planned in the next two years, the company — which has raised about $21 million in funding — said the next generation ones will be bigger and heavier with higher resolution. This will make the images clearer.

The Mission Drishti satellite was about 190 kg.