PierSight Space is also in the race with the other three mentioned above. The total grant by the government is up to Rs. 350 crore, which has to be repaid by the winning consortium over the operational period of the constellation.
The public private partnership (PPP) tender was floated by private space sector regulator IN-SPACe and these firms are bidding against three other lead companies of Bengaluru-based Ananth Technologies Limited (ATL), Bengaluru-based Centum Electronics, and Hyderabad-based Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) of other three consortiums.
The tender process is expected to end by March with India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) under the Ministry of Finance running the bid.
IN-SPACe, Pixxel, Dhruva, SatSure, PierSight, Centum, and IIFCL did not respond to ET’s requests for comments.
Subba Rao Pavuluri, president, SatCom Industry Association-India andChairman and Managing Director, Ananth Technologies, told ET that his company is partnering with Nagpur’s Solar Group and Hyderabad-based XDLINX Space Labs to form a consortium.
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“The project roughly costs Rs. 1,500 crores. While the government will fund Rs. 350 crores, the rest will be invested by private companies. The public funding will be repaid by the private companies. India needs a lot of data on the geospatial side. Earlier, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) met the requirement. Now they want private companies to do that. ATL has facilities to manufacture satellites while the other consortium members have expertise in designing and building the payloads,” Pavuluri said, adding that the onus of finding customers will be on the private companies. “Government agencies have a huge requirement for geospatial data,” he pointed out.
ATL has so far contributed to 100 satellites and 70 launch vehicles for the Indian Space programme including the recent SPADEX, and CARTOSAT in the past. ATL was the first private company to set up assembly, integration and testing facilities for satellite and launch vehicles way back in 1993.
Previously INSPACe chairman Pawan Goenka had said that the PPP model will offer support to private companies to launch 12 satellites and that the upstream infrastructure of the satellite constellation with advanced imaging technology is expected to create significant downstream commercial potential resulting in more competitive products. However, sources said that the number of satellites could be fewer or more depending on the designs being submitted.
The EOI outlines scope for non-government entities to design and build a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit, to equip them with sensors, to launch the satellites using Indian launch vehicles, to monitor spacecraft health, to manage payload data download, and to process payload data to generate analysis ready data.
A Tata Advanced Systems spokesperson told ET, “Tata Advanced Systems, in collaboration with several startups and other Tata companies, has placed interest for this opportunity. We look forward to receiving the RFP (Request for Proposal) and are well positioned to execute this project successfully, should we get an opportunity.”
IN-SPACe’s initiative will accelerate the growth of India’s space sector and provide a valuable boost to the private sector, the spokesperson added.
While earlier this year, Tata Advanced Systems launched TSAT-1A, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) remote sensing satellite, Pixxel’s upcoming launch includes that of Fireflies, its 5-meter resolution hyperspectral satellites, which will be the highest-resolution hyperspectral satellites ever launched, according to the company. These satellites will capture data across more than 250 spectral bands, offering more comprehensive coverage with a 40 km swath width and a 24-hour revisit frequency anywhere on the planet.
Along with the six upcoming satellites launching shortly, Pixxel plans to expand its constellation to 24 satellites to make hyperspectral data commercially available and accessible to stakeholders across industries and governments.
“There are several other companies and consortiums that have cleared the first stage and have gone to the next round. Several of them have applied. However, we cannot name all of them. The ones mentioned above are all bidders among multiple others. We are still processing them and there is no tentative timeline. We haven’t fixed the number of satellites in the mega constellation. We’re also looking at several advanced imaging technologies. The significance of this is that it is being done on a public-private partnership basis. The industry is owning and operating it. We are giving an opportunity and level-playing field for all companies including startups and established ones to build it,” a source said.
Asked where the EO data will be used, the source added, “That depends on the private companies on wherever they want to sell it. They can target any number of sectors. In a public private partnership, they will build and operate it. It is completely their prerogative. Even the government will buy from them now.”
IN-SPACe had issued this expression of interest in July this year and the last date of application was December 6 this year.
