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Bengaluru-based Pixxel which was supposed to launch Anand satellite in recent PSLV-C51 has missed it
About Pixxel India’s Anand satellite
Pixxel India has planned a vast constellation of earth-imaging satellites that would continuously monitor every part of the globe and beam high-resolution imagery and other data that can be used for a variety of applications related to climate change, agriculture, and urban planning.
The first of these satellites, called Anand, was supposed to be on the PSLV-C51 rocket that lifted off from the Sriharikota launching range recently
But less than a week before the launch, the company announced that due to “certain software issues” during testing, it would not go ahead with the launch of the satellite at this time
Why was Pixxel India’s launch significant?
Earlier ISRO chairman had said that the launch of PSLV-C51 would be “special” because of Pixxel India’s satellite, which would mark the beginning of a new age of private companies becoming partners in India’s space sector. “The government has initiated reforms, and within eight months, the first satellite Anand from a start-up called Pixxel India is going to be launched,”
Pixxel India
It is an Indian space-technology start-up which aims to put a constellation of 30 earth observation micro-satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit in 2020s.
It was started by BITS Pilani graduates Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in February 2019, was Asia’s only space startup to qualify for the 2019 Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles
Key project and their objectives
Pixxel India says that it is building a constellation of earth imaging small satellites to provide an entirely new kind of dataset that today’s satellites aren’t capable of. It planned constellation of satellites will provide global coverage every 24 hours enabling organisations around the globe to detect, and predict global phenomena in near real time
