Firefly-1 is one of the first three hyperspectral imaging satellites of the Indian start-up Pixxel, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-12 rideshare from Vandenberg, California, on 14 January 2025.
Firefly satellites take hyperspectral pictures of Earth. A normal camera records three colours; a Firefly splits light between 450 and 900 nanometres into more than 135 narrow bands. Each material on the ground reflects those bands in its own pattern, so the data can reveal crop stress, water pollution, deforestation and industrial activity that ordinary images miss.
Pixxel quotes a ground sampling distance of 5 m and a swath 40 km wide.
Pixxel planned six Fireflies for the first phase of its commercial constellation. The first three flew on SpaceX's Transporter-12 rideshare on 14 January 2025. Three more followed on SpaceX's NAOS Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg, California, on 26 August 2025 (US time), completing the first phase. With six satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, Pixxel says the constellation can revisit any spot every 24 hours.
Pixxel says the Fireflies have about six times the spatial resolution of most existing hyperspectral systems. It offers the data to users in agriculture, energy, environment, forestry, mining and government.