Pixxel

A Bengaluru space company that builds hyperspectral imaging satellites. Its first satellite, Shakuntala, was launched in April 2022.

Purpose

Pixxel builds Earth-imaging satellites that see in many narrow colour bands. This is called hyperspectral imaging. Its data is aimed at uses such as agriculture, forestry and mining.

Its Firefly satellites take images at 5 m resolution in more than 150 spectral bands, across a 40 km wide strip.

Timeline

• 1 April 2022: Shakuntala, Pixxel's first satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral
• 26 November 2022: Anand, a nano-satellite test of a small camera, launched on PSLV-C54
• 14 January 2025: the first three Fireflies launched on SpaceX's Transporter-12 from Vandenberg
• August 2025: three more Fireflies launched

Status

Shakuntala has re-entered the atmosphere. The Fireflies are Pixxel's commercial satellites.

Sources

1. About us — Pixxel
2. Pixxel launches world's highest-resolution hyperspectral satellites — Pixxel
3. Into the cosmic sunset: Shakuntala's journey back home — Pixxel
4. PSLV-C54 / EOS-06 mission — ISRO
5. Satellite catalogue (SATCAT) search — CelesTrak