New Delhi: A Ground Station at Chanakya University has been used to track the Drishti satellite of Bengaluru-based New Space startup GalaxEye, that was
launched on 3 May on board a SpaceX Falcon 9. The tracking indicates that the satellite is healthy and operating nominally. The exercise was livestreamed to the GalaxEye team, demonstrating a collaboration between an academic institute and a commercial space operator. Following his tenure as ISRO chairman, S Somanath has been working at bolstering the science tech ecosystem in India, and develop the Indian science community. IN-SPACe is also setting up ‘space labs’ in academic intuitions across the country.
In a post on X, former chairman of ISRO S Somanath said, “For Chanakya University, it is a proud moment in the Space journey of Bharat. Chanakya Satellite Ground Station has successfully tracked GalaxEye Space’s newly launched Drishti satellite and captured telemetry from this groundbreaking OptoSAR satellite. We have successfully streamed it in real-time to the GalaxEye team, thus actively bridging the gap between academic capability and private space enterprise. Excellent work by everyone involved!”
The unique capabilities of Drishti
Drishti is a unique OptoSAR satellite that combines observations from an electro-optical hyperspectral payload and a Synthetic Aperture Radar payload through its unique SyncFused technology. While the optical imagery is high in resolution, it cannot peer through clouds. SAR can peer through the clouds, but the observations are not of high resolution. GalaxEye’s technology uniquely combines both observations. The satellite has all-weather capabilities and can peer through clouds. On board is also an Nvidia Jetson Orin edge computing module, that allows Drishti to run advanced AI workloads directly from orbit. Just before the launch GalaxEye signed an agreement with NSIL. According to this agreement, NSIL will vend GalaxEye’s entire product portfolio internationally. Drishti is the first in a planned constellation of Earth observing satellites.
