SatLeo Labs to fly India's first commercial thermal payload on SpaceX Transporter-18
Ahmedabad startup SatLeo Labs will launch TAPAS-1, described as India's first dedicated commercial CubeSat-category thermal infrared payload, aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare on 1 October — the first flight of its planned PYRO thermal intelligence constellation.
Ahmedabad-based spacetech startup SatLeo Labs will launch TAPAS-1, described as India’s first dedicated commercial thermal infrared satellite payload, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on 1 October, the Gujarat state government said on Wednesday. The Hindu BusinessLine
TAPAS-1 — short for Thermal Access Platform for Analytics & Solutions — is a 3-kg CubeSat-category payload that will ride to orbit on the Transporter-18 rideshare mission via Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 platform. The mission will deploy 130 payloads from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 4-East into a sun-synchronous orbit. The Times of India VC Star
The payload captures thermal infrared imagery that maps heat and temperature variations on the Earth’s surface — information invisible to conventional optical satellites. SatLeo says the data will serve agriculture and water-stress monitoring, urban heat management, forest-fire detection, climate monitoring, infrastructure monitoring and defence. The Hindu BusinessLine
Founded in 2023 by Shravan Singh Bhati, Dr Ranendu Ghosh and Urmil Bakhai, SatLeo has developed the payload at its Gujarat laboratory; Ghosh brings 27 years of satellite payload technology experience at ISRO. The company has raised about ₹60 crore and holds letters of intent worth about $52 million, roughly 60 per cent from customers outside India, and has piloted temperature mapping with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Business Standard
TAPAS-1 is designed for a three-year life at around 500 km altitude and is the first flight of SatLeo’s thermal intelligence platform — a precursor to its planned PYRO constellation of 10 to 15 thermal imaging satellites by 2029. Business Standard
Sources
- The Hindu BusinessLine: Ahmedabad spacetech startup SatLeo to launch thermal-imaging payload on SpaceX rocket
- The Times of India: SatLeo readies commercial thermal payload for October 1 launch
- Business Standard: SatLeo Labs to put India’s 1st commercial thermal eye in space on Thursday
- VC Star: SpaceX to transport 130 payloads to orbit in next Vandenberg launch
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