Bengaluru: Pixxel, a Bengaluru headquartered space-tech startup has signed an agreement with in-space satellite transportation and infrastructure company Momentus Inc, for delivering it’s second small satellite onboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 launch to SSO orbit in 2021 as well as options to fly again in 2022.
Pixxel is building a constellation of cutting-edge earth imaging small satellites that can provide real-time remote sensing data across the world. The Momentus Shuttle Service will provide rideshare for multiple Pixxel spacecraft to predefined orbits.
Founded in 2019 by then 21-year-olds, Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, Pixxel satellites will help make the world a more sustainable place through highly accurate data-based insights in agriculture, climate change, forestry, and other domains. Pixxel recently raised a funding of $5M, which the company is using to rapidly build and launch the second satellite with Momentus’ help.
Commenting on the agreement, Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel said, “We are excited to partner with Momentus to get our satellites up in orbit as soon as we can and get the data in the hands of our customers.
Momentus’ launch and in-space transfer services provide us with the flexibility to get to the orbit we want, even on a rideshare mission. We look forward to working with them to help make space more accessible.”
“Pixxel is doing something innovative that hasn’t been done in India or the West,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. “With a shared belief in humanity’s expansion in space via in-situ resources, we wish this mission the ultimate success.”
Momentus has gained significant traction since its founding in 2017, attracting dozens of customers ranging from private commercial space companies to the likes of Lockheed Martin and NASA, and penning important industry partnerships, most notably with SpaceX. Momentus employs new and proprietary technologies, including water plasma propulsion to enable revolutionary low-cost orbital Shuttle and Charter services.
Charter Service will allow dedicated capacity to be allocated to a single customer’s payload. In the Shuttle Service model, the payload will be rideshare along with other payloads hosted or deployed from the Vigoride transfer vehicle.
