Dhruva Space Private Limited is an Indian

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

aerospace manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of Aircraft design process, designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a hi ...

headquartered in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

. Founded in 2012 by Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti, the company is engaged in the development of

small satellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

s in the commercial, governmental and academic markets. It provides the building, launching and operation of satellites. The founding team were formerly working with Exseed Space (now called Satellize),

ams AG ams OSRAM AG is an Austrian semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Premstätten, Austria with a co-headquarters in Munich, Germany. The company develops and produces intelligent sensors and emitter components. In 2020 ams AG acquired ...

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

and

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and all of whom are alumni of institutes such as

BITS Pilani The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a private deemed university in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. BITS Pilani was one of the first ...

SRM Institute of Science and Technology SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) is a private deemed university located in Kattankulathur, (near Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1985 as SRM Engineering College in Kattankulathur, it gained the deemed University status ...

EMLYON Business School EM Lyon Business School (styled emlyon) is a business school in Lyon, France, established in 1872, and affiliated with the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A '' grande école de commerce'', EM Lyon Business School offers a range of academi ...

Luleå University of Technology Luleå University of Technology is a Public university, public research university in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The university has four campuses located in the Arctic, Arctic Region in the cities of Luleå, Kiruna, Skellefteå, and Piteå. With ...

and

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. The company's advisors include Lt Gen Anil Kumar Bhalla, former Director-General, Defence Intelligence Agency, former astronaut and former

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

Commander Chris Austin Hadfield OC OOnt MSC CD, and Niels Buus, former CEO of GomSpace.

History

In 2014, Dhruva Space signed a deal with

AMSAT AMSAT is a name for various amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide. In particular, it often refers to the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, headquartered in Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, a ...

India to develop HAMSAT-II. In December 2019, Dhruva Space raised ₹5 crore in funding led by Mumbai Angels Network. In September 2020, Dhruva Space became the first Indian private company to secure an order for end-to-end design and development of Space-grade

solar arrays A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to abs ...

for satellites. In October 2021, Dhruva Space raised ₹22 crore in funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) Fund and Blue Ashva Capital. On 16 March 2022, Dhruva Space signed a commercial launch services agreement ( LSA) with

NewSpace India Limited NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) is a Public Sector Undertakings in India, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of the Government of India, under the Department of Space. NSIL is responsible for producing, assembling and integrating the launch vehicle ...

for an in-orbit test of its Dhruva Space Orbit Deployers. These are likely to be used on board the

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

and the

SSLV The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is a small-lift launch vehicle developed by the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to deliver payload to low Earth orbit () or payload to Sun-synchronous orbit (). The rocket supports mu ...

. On 10 June 2022 at the inauguration of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, Dhruva Space signed an MoU with IN-SPACe. On 24 June, Dhruva Space and Digantara Aerospace were announced as the first two private companies to receive authorisation from IN-SPACe for space activities. On 15 July 2024, Dhruva Space was granted authorisation by IN-SPACe to provide Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS). GSaaS will ensure reliable data transmission, enhance mission flexibility, and reduce operational costs pertaining to

Ground Stations A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

Capability and Infrastructure

Dhruva Space currently operates out of a 22,000 square-foot facility in the Begumpet area of Hyderabad. The workspace houses specialised facilities such as two Class 10,000 Cleanrooms, a Helmholtz Cage, mechanical and avionics labs, and an operational ground station and mission control centre. On 14 October 2023, Dhruva Space shared a first look at the company's upcoming 280,000 square-foot facility to be situated in the outskirts of Hyderabad that will design, engineer, assemble, integrate and test large-scale spacecrafts weighing up to 500 kilograms. These spacecrafts include satellite platforms and subsystems, satellite orbital deployers, ground station antennas, and more. The facility completion will be done in a multi-phase manner over multiple years; and the first phase – to be ready by mid-2025 will be 120,000 square feet, which includes a 30,000 square foot Spacecraft Solar Array Assembly Line.

Partnerships

On 16 February 2023, Dhruva Space signed a Memorandum of Agreement with French strategic equipment supplier Comat, for a bilateral technology exchange. On 16 March 2023, Dhruva Space announced a partnership with France-based satellite operator and global IoT connectivity provider Kinéis. Both companies will collaborate to establish space and ground infrastructure. Kinéis' and Dhruva Space's partnership will culminate in a joint satellite mission for various IoT applications. This mission was announced by French space agency

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

in a press release detailing Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's official tour of France in July 2023.

AstraView Commercial Satellite Imagery

On 2 December 2024, Dhruva Space launched AstraView, the company's commercial satellite imagery service.

Awards

In March 2022, Dhruva Space was named 'Best Spacetech Startup' by '' Entrepreneur India'' magazine, BusinessEx.com and Gupshup for the Startup 2022 Awards. The company was given the same award again in September 2024. On March 17, 2022, Dhruva Space won the

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

Design for India Challenge 2021 for their Bolt module. In October 2022, the company exhibited Bolt at the India Mobile Congress 2022 at

Pragati Maidan Bharat Mandapam (English: /ˈbʱaːrət ˈmən̪ɖəpəm/) is an exhibition hall located within the confines of the Pragati Maidan complex in New Delhi, India. It is one of the largest convention centres of India. While the Pragati Maidan com ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, as part of Qualcomm India's 5G Startups Showcase. On 1 March 2023, Dhruva Space was awarded with an Innovation for India Award by the Marico Innovation Foundation. The Innovation for India Awards was held at Jio World Centre,

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, and the award was accoladed to Dhruva Space by Rajeev Bakshi, Non-Executive & Independent Director, Marico Limited. On 27 October, Dhruva Space was listed as one of

Forbes India ''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'', which is managed by the Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18. History and profile Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies ...

's DGEMS 200 for the year 2023.

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

India partnered for this launch edition of DGEMS with D Globalist, a global business mobility accelerator.

Missions

On 30 June 2022, Dhruva Space's Satellite Orbital Deployer was successfully tested and space-qualified (known as DSOD-1U Mission) in

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

C53 mission, hosted on

POEM Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. The launch took place at 18:02 IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at

Sriharikota Sriharikota () is a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Shar Project settlement of Tirupati district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, one of the two satellite launch centres in India (the ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. On 26 November 2022, Dhruva Space launched two

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

communication

CubeSats A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

as part of ISRO's PSLV C54 mission. The launch of Dhruva Space's Thybolt Mission took place at 11:56am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at

. As of 1 February 2023, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 completed 1000 orbits in

LEO Leo is the Latin word for lion. It most often refers to: * Leo (constellation), a constellation of stars in the night sky * Leo (astrology), an astrological sign of the zodiac * Leo (given name), a given name in several languages, usually mas ...

. The mission lifetime, according to the company, is approximately one year. At Broadband India Forum’s India SatCom 2022 in New Delhi, India, Dhruva Space was accoladed by IN-SPACe Chairman Dr. Pawan K Goenka to have 'the first private Indian satellites authorised by IN-SPACe, successfully deployed in orbit.' In June 2024, Dhruva Space announced that the Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 satellites had deorbited after more than 15,000 combined orbits. The mission observed support from dignitaries including Prime Minister of India

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

, Minister for Road Transport & Highways

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician who serves as the 40th Minister of Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India since 2014. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways, current ...

Minister of Tourism The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) *Ministry of Touri ...

Culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

and Development of North Eastern Region of India G Kishan Reddy, and Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and IT Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao. On 22 April 2023, the company launched its 3U and 6U Satellite Orbital Deployers and its Dhruva Space Satellite Orbiter Link (DSOL) onboard ISRO’s PSLV C55, as part of POEM-2. Dhruva Space and IN-SPACe have both declared the missions successful.

Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads (LEAP)

Dhruva Space Space-qualified its P-30

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

platform launched as ‘LEAP - Technology Demonstrator’ (or LEAP-TD) payload onboard ISRO’s PSLV-C58 POEM-3 mission on 1 January 2024. This mission not only validated the company's P-30 platform but also its various subsystems in-orbit. The company's next mission is LEAP-1 mission which will see Dhruva Space's P-30 nanosatellite set to validate the

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

payload of an Australian customer. According to ISRO, this mission is set to fly onboard PSLV-C59. In September 2024, Dhruva Space onboarded Mumbai-based Manastu Space as a customer for its LEAP-3 mission, wherein Manastu Space aims to Space-qualify their advanced green propulsion system that uses a hydrogen peroxide-based fuel with proprietary additives, combined with an ultra-high-temperature catalyst and a novel combustion chamber.

References

External links

* {{Indian space programme Space programme of India Aerospace companies of India Indian private spaceflight companies Indian companies established in 2012 2012 establishments in Andhra Pradesh Companies based in Hyderabad, India