Ahmedabad-based space technology Start-Up SatLeo Labs is scheduled to launch its indigenous thermal infrared Earth-observation payload, TAPAS-1, aboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket on 1 October. The mission is expected to mark the company’s entry into the commercial satellite-data market.

TAPAS-1, short for Thermal Access Platform for Analytics & Solutions, is expected to fly as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission through Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 platform. The Falcon-9 launch is scheduled from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States.

The approximately 3 kg thermal payload will be deployed in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 500 km. It is designed to record thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface and generate imagery showing variations in heat and temperature.

Unlike conventional optical imagery, which depends on reflected sunlight and visible-spectrum observations, thermal infrared data can measure land-surface temperature. This will enable SatLeo to produce temperature-related intelligence for areas that are difficult to assess through standard optical satellite images.

The payload has been developed entirely at SatLeo’s laboratory in Gujarat. The company describes TAPAS-1 as India’s first dedicated commercial thermal payload in the CubeSat category and as the first element of a full-stack thermal-intelligence platform combining sensor hardware, data processing and artificial intelligence-enabled analysis.

The data could support crop-health assessment, identification of water stress, agriculture planning and climate-related analysis. Thermal imagery may also help map urban heat islands, monitor temperature differences across cities and support municipal heat-management measures.

SatLeo also expects the system to serve infrastructure, industrial and disaster-monitoring requirements. Potential applications include monitoring industrial assets, detecting abnormal thermal signatures and identifying forest fires at an early stage.

The Start-Up has previously worked with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on a pilot programme to map temperatures across the city. It has also been engaging with organisations in agriculture and other sectors that could use satellite-derived thermal information for operational planning.

SatLeo was founded in 2023 by Shravan Singh Bhati, Dr Ranendu Ghosh and Urmil Bakhai. Dr Ghosh has 27 years of experience at ISRO in satellite-payload technologies, while Bhati has more than 16 years of experience in satellite-related innovation.

The company intends to convert TAPAS-1 imagery into a commercial data and intelligence service for businesses and institutions. It has received letters of intent valued at about ₹430 crore, with nearly 60 per cent of this prospective business originating from customers outside India.

TAPAS-1 is designed to operate in orbit for about three years. SatLeo plans to launch eight additional satellites of a similar type by 2029 as it builds a thermal-imaging constellation, although wider company plans have also referred to a larger multi-satellite thermal-intelligence architecture.

SatLeo has raised around ₹60 crore in funding so far and has a team of more than 40 professionals. The mission will demonstrate its thermal-sensing, payload-performance and data-processing capabilities in orbit before the company expands its commercial constellation.

The launch comes as Gujarat seeks to develop a private space and deep-technology ecosystem under the Gujarat SpaceTech Policy 2025-30. The policy provides support for launch costs, intellectual-property assistance and subsidies for testing facilities, while seeking to establish the State as a manufacturing and innovation hub for space technologies.

The Gujarat government has said that the State is the first in India to introduce a dedicated space technology policy. SatLeo’s TAPAS-1 mission consequently represents both a commercial test for the Ahmedabad Start-Up and a significant early payload-development milestone for Gujarat’s emerging private-space sector.

Agencies