The Technology Development Board (TDB), under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has signed an agreement with Bangalore-based GalaxEye Space Solutions Private Limited to support development of next-generation multi-sensor satellite technology, announced PIB.

The company will receive ₹63.84 crore under the Government of India’s Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, which is intended to accelerate private-sector R&D in strategic and emerging technologies.

GalaxEye’s project has a total approved cost of ₹247.69 crore. TDB’s assistance will be provided through Optionally Convertible Debentures, a financing instrument that can be converted into equity under agreed conditions.

The project aims to develop an indigenous multi-sensor Earth-observation satellite capable of sub-0.5-metre OptoSAR imaging. It will seek to mature the technology from Technology Readiness Level-6 to TRL-9.

TRL-6 broadly represents a prototype demonstrated in a relevant environment, while TRL-9 denotes a system that has been proven in operational use. The funding will therefore support the engineering, testing, validation and technology-maturation activities required before operational deployment.

At the centre of the project is GalaxEye’s OptoSAR approach, which combines Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with electro-optical imaging in a single Earth-observation architecture.

Optical imaging can provide detailed visual information, but its performance can be constrained by cloud cover, poor illumination and night-time conditions.

SAR, by contrast, uses radar sensing and can operate day and night, including through cloud cover. Its all-weather capability can provide imagery when conventional optical satellites face visibility limitations.

By fusing SAR and electro-optical data, the proposed OptoSAR satellite is intended to offer richer, more persistent and more continuous Earth-observation data across varying weather and lighting conditions.

The satellite is designed to deliver imagery at a resolution finer than 0.5 metres. Such resolution could support detailed observation over wide areas while also enabling longer-range monitoring requirements.

Potential applications include wide-area and long-range surveillance, human and vehicle detection, and target classification. The capability could be relevant to security, disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, land-use assessment and other applications requiring dependable imaging in diverse operating conditions.

The agreement marks a significant step in India’s effort to build private-sector capability in advanced space and deep-technology systems, while reducing dependence on single-sensor imaging solutions.

PIB