India's first OptoSAR satellite loses contact after solar storm, but mission delivers key breakthrough

Bengaluru-based private space startup GalaxEye on Tuesday said communication with Mission Drishti, the world's first OptoSAR satellite, was lost after the spacecraft encountered an anomaly during its final stage of Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP).

Launched aboard a SpaceX mission on May 3, Mission Drishti marked the debut of OptoSAR satellites in orbit and was the first satellite to combine multispectral imaging (MSI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on a single platform.

Solar Storm Triggers Anomaly

In a statement, GalaxEye said the satellite successfully established communication and completed a major portion of its planned LEOP, validating key spacecraft systems, executing deployment and attitude control activities, operating onboard computing and communications systems, and demonstrating the company's fully in-house mission operations capability.

However, in the final stage of LEOP, the spacecraft encountered an anomaly following a geomagnetic solar storm.

"Initial root cause analysis indicates that radiation effects associated with the event likely impacted a critical onboard system. Communication with the spacecraft subsequently became intermittent and was eventually lost. While recovery efforts are ongoing, the likelihood of recovery currently appears low," said Suyash Singh, founder and CEO, GalaxEye. 

Critical Technologies Successfully Validated

Despite the setback, GalaxEye said the maiden mission successfully validated critical technologies, operational processes and infrastructure required to design, build, launch and operate advanced space systems during its active operating phase over a few weeks.

The company added that the mission also strengthened customer engagement and reinforced market confidence in its Earth observation capabilities.

Mission Drishti is GalaxEye's first satellite mission and the world's first OptoSAR satellite, combining MSI and SAR on a single platform to deliver analysis-ready, all-weather Earth imagery.

The mission attracted global attention and received recognition from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and several leaders across the space and technology ecosystem. Various government agencies also extended support to the mission.

'Mission Has Provided Invaluable Engineering Insights'

The GalaxEye CEO said the company would use the lessons from Mission Drishti to accelerate future satellite development.

"Mission Drishti marks the culmination of years of innovation, engineering, and execution by our team. While the satellite experienced an anomaly following an extreme space weather event, the mission has provided invaluable engineering insights that will directly strengthen our future missions," Singh said.

"Learning from the mission, we are accelerating our transition toward bringing a significant portion of our supply chain, manufacturing, and satellite development processes in-house, giving us visibility and control over the entire value chain. The team is excited and ready for the next leg of our growth," he added.