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India’s Pixxel is set to launch three of its six hyperspectral imaging satellites aboard a SpaceX rocket from California on Tuesday, the first such network in the country’s nascent private space sector, Pixxel’s chief told Reuters.

The satellites will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 550 km, with the remaining three slated for deployment in the second quarter of the year.

The launch is scheduled to take place at the Vandenberg Space Force Base at around 10:45 a.m. Pacific Time (1845 GMT) on Tuesday – just after midnight the next day in India – subject to final approvals.

Pixxel’s founder and chief executive Awais Ahmed told Reuters that it plans to add 18 more spacecraft to the six it has already developed, eyeing a share of the satellite imaging market projected to reach $19 billion (roughly Rs.1,64,451 crore) by 2029.

The launch is a milestone for India’s nascent private space sector and for Google-backed Pixxel, a five-year-old startup.

It aims to use hyperspectral imaging — a technology that captures highly detailed data across hundreds of light bands — to serve industries such as agriculture, mining, environmental monitoring, and defence.

The company says its satellites can deliver insights to improve crop yields, track resources, monitor oil spills and country borders in much better details than current technology allows.

“The satellite imagery market today is around $4.3 billion (roughly Rs. 37,219 crore), with analysis adding another $14 billion (roughly Rs. 1,21,180 crore). By 2029, the market is projected to reach $19 billion (roughly Rs. 1,64,457 crore). Hyperspectral imaging, which is new, could realistically capture $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,327 crore) to $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,676 crore) of this, plus additional revenue from analysis,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed said Pixxel has signed up around 65 clients, including Rio Tinto, British Petroleum, and India’s Ministry of Agriculture, with some already paying for data from its demo satellites. Contracts are in place for future data from the Firefly constellation.

“For defence-use cases, conversations are happening predominantly in the US and India, and in other regions through resellers and partners. Usually, government agencies want to see things launched and working before committing to procurement,” Ahmed, 27, said.

Pixxel expects to make first contact with the satellites about two-and-a-half hours after launch, with full commercial imaging capabilities expected by mid-March.

However, its expansion plans face stiff competition in a global satellite market dominated by the United States and China.

The US leads in commercial and government satellite launches, driven by private companies like SpaceX and government contracts, while China has emerged as a competitor with aggressive state-backed initiatives and a rapid expansion into low Earth orbit satellites.

India, despite its established spacefaring capabilities, holds only a two percent share of the global commercial space market. The government is now banking on private players to increase that share, aiming to grow the country’s space sector from $8 billion (roughly Rs. 69,258 crore) to $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,80,976 crore) by 2030.

Pixxel hopes to leapfrog these challenges with its Firefly constellation, which boasts a 5-meter resolution and a 40-km swathe width—outperforming competitors such as Finland’s Kuva Space and San Francisco-based Orbital Sidekick, whose satellites typically have lower resolution and narrower coverage.

“If and once their commissioning is successful, they’ll have more imaging capacity than ISRO in the hyperspectral band, which for the Indian industry is a watershed moment,” said Narayan Prasad, chief operations officer at Netherlands-based space industry marketplace Satsearch.

© Thomson Reuters 2025

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Japan Launches Final H-2A Rocket with GOSAT-GW Satellite to Monitor Climate and Oceans

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July 1, 2025

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Japan Launches Final H-2A Rocket with GOSAT-GW Satellite to Monitor Climate and Oceans

Japan launched a satellite which is a dual purpose, for monitoring greenhouse gases and sea temperature. On Saturday, June 28, 2025, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) held its 50th and final launch of the H-2A rocket, launching the GOSAT-GW satellite of dual purpose to space. This mission lifted off from Ypshinobu Launch Complex (LP-1) in Japan at Tenegashima Space Centre at 10:03 p.m. IST. These satellites have been sent by Japan to observe the changes in water cycles and greenhouse gases.

JAXA’s Dual Purpose Satellite Launch

According to JAXA, the Greenhouse Gas and Water Cycle Observation Satellite (GOSA-GW) is a very recent and significant effort of Japan to know about the effect of greenhouse gases and the changes in the cycle of rain. GOSAT-GW has joined the orbit of Earth with GCOM-W2, which is its predecessor, and was launched in 2012, known as SHIZUKU, whereas GOSAT-1, launched in 2009, is known as IBUKI. It is equipped with two main instruments.

More About GOSAT-GW

GOSAT-GW is equipped with two main instruments, the first is called the Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMSR), and the other is known as the Greenhouse Gases Observation Sensor (TANSO). The former one will measure water cycles and sea surface temperature fluctuations, while the latter one is for monitoring components such as carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere for measuring climate change.

H-2A rocket of Japan has been capable of launching payloads into the geostationary orbit around Earth and also orbiting the Moon. JAXA also launched the Akatsuki spacecraft for studying Venus in 2010; however, the spacecraft failed to enter the orbit of Venus properly.

Japan’s Successful Launch Operations

JAXA launched H-2A for the first time in 2001. With its 25 years in operation, the rocket experienced only a single failure, giving the spacecraft a 98% success rate. After 50 missions, the launch vehicle is now being retired to make way for the H3 rocket of Japan, offering comparable performance at a very reasonable cost.

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SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in One Day, Crossing 7,900 Active Units

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July 1, 2025

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SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in One Day, Crossing 7,900 Active Units

On June 28, 2025, two Falcon 9 rockets carrying the internet satellite broadband connection lifted off at 12:26 a.m. and 1:13 p.m. EDT. The first one was launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and another from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The new addons for megaconsellation of SpaceX (Group 10-34 and Group 15-7) reached low orbit Earth about 9 minutes after leaving the ground and were deployed after an hour.

According to As per NASA, in the intervening time, the first stage of the Falcon rockets (boosters B1092 and B1088) flew back to the droneships. The landing was on “A Shortfall of Gravitas, “ completing the fifth flight of the boosters. The stage touched down on “Of Course I Still Love You”, with its eighth flight to space and back, in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch at early morning carries 27 Starlink Satellites and the afternoon liftoff lofted 26 more of the relay satellites, vasting the network of SpaceX to more than 7,900 active units, said by satellite tracker Jonathan Mc Dowell.

Broader Deployment Context

The launch in the morning was delayed earlier that day because of the severe weather alerts at Florida, but flew in the near perfect conditions at the visibility of 10 miles. Throughout 2025, SpaceX heald 42 Falcon 9 missions with 28 Starlink launched by June. by mid-June the batch of 26 satellites launched from Vandenberg (Booster B1081’s 15th flight) which contributed to more than 7,600 active satellites by June 12.

Both the missions are a part of an aggressive Starlink deployment, mainly for boosting the low Earth orbit constellation for the global broadband coverage. Now the network expands to approximately 7900 satellites, focusing on the biggest LEO broadband constellation ever.

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Astronomers Discover a Gigantic Supernova Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

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July 1, 2025

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Astronomers Discover a Gigantic Supernova Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Astronomers international team has employed various satellites and telescopes for performing multiwavelength observations of a supernova remnant known as SNR J0450.4-7050. The result that scientists got after an observational campaign, published on June 18, 2025, on the preprint server arXiv, gained new insights into the properties of this remnant, and observed that it is much larger than thought in the past. Supernova remnants (SNRs) are expanded structures resulting from the explosion of a supernova. It usually lasts for several hundred thousand years before the time it disperses into the interstellar medium.

Multiwavelength Observations Reveal New Details of SNR J0450.4-7050

As per the study by NASA, observations by the scientists indicate that SNRs contain the ejected expansion of material from the explosion and other interstellar material swept by the passage of the shockwave from the star that exploded. SNR studies beyond the Milky Way are important for comprehending the feedback in different evolutionary phases and gaining valuable insights into the local ISM. The Large Magellanic Cloud is the galaxy that has its SNR population explored in depth.

Importance of Studying Supernova Remnants Beyond the Milky Way

The recent observations reveal that SNR J0450.4-7050, a large supernova remnant in the LMC having physical dimensions of 332 by 244 light years, is estimated to have the remnants of around 45,000 years old. Scientists named it Veliki, which means large in Serbian. It also showcases the complex filamentary morphology with different inner and outer shell structures.

Discovery of Veliki: A Large, Aged Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

An astronomer’s group led by Zachary J. Smeaton decided to take a closer observation of SNR J0450.4−7050 by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and MeerKAT radio telescope. The SNR showed a high radial surface brightness with one of the lowest average radio spectral indices, with similar remnants.

Unusual Radio Properties Suggest Veliki is a Fully Radiative SNR

These unusual features, according to the scientists, give the prediction that Veliki is mainly a radiative SNR with a high shock compression ratio. This states about the non-thermal spectrum and higher surface brightness and emissions. Further observations of the surrounding environment are needed to confirm the hypothesis with an understanding of the remnants’ nature in a better way.

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