India's Largest Private Satellite Mission Drishti Lost After Solar Storm, Says GalaxEye

Mission Drishti, the world's first OptoSAR satellite developed by Bengaluru-based space start-up GalaxEye, has lost communication following a geomagnetic solar storm. The satellite, which is also India's largest privately developed Earth observation satellite, was launched in May aboard a Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX from Vandenberg, California.

On July 7, GalaxEye provided an update on the mission, stating that the spacecraft encountered an anomaly during the final stage of its Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP). 'Initial root cause analysis indicates that radiation effects associated with the event likely impacted a critical onboard system,' the company said. 'Subsequently, communication with the spacecraft became intermittent and was eventually lost.'

GalaxEye added that while recovery efforts are ongoing, the likelihood of recovery currently appears low. The company noted that Mission Drishti successfully established communication and completed a major portion of its planned LEOP. Key spacecraft systems executed critical deployment and attitude control activities, operated onboard computing and communications systems, and demonstrated GalaxEye's fully in-house mission operations capability through its Mission Control Centre in Bengaluru.

During its active operating phase over a few weeks, Mission Drishti successfully validated critical technologies, operational processes, and infrastructure required to design, build, launch, and operate advanced space systems. Suyash Singh, founder and CEO of GalaxEye, said, 'Mission Drishti marks the culmination of years of innovation, engineering, and execution by our team. While the satellite experienced an anomaly following an extreme space weather event, the mission has provided invaluable engineering insights that will directly strengthen our future missions.'

Singh added that the company is accelerating its transition toward bringing a significant portion of its supply chain, manufacturing, and satellite development processes in-house. GalaxEye aims to launch two new OptoSAR satellites within the next 24 months while expanding its in-house capabilities to further strengthen quality, reliability, and execution.