Dhruva Space To Launch First Commercial Satellite Aboard SpaceX Rocket

Dhruva Space is set to launch its first commercial satellite mission, LEAP-1, in the third quarter of 2025 aboard Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

The mission features payloads from Australian companies Akula Tech and Esper Satellites. LEAP-1 will host the payloads on Dhruva’s P-30 satellite platform, which was successfully tested aboard ISRO’s PSLV-C58 in January 2024.

The LEAP-1 satellite will carry Nexus-01 by Akula Tech, which is an AI module designed for onboard data processing and real-time geospatial analytics.

It will also carry OTR-2 by Esper Satellites,  a hyperspectral imager to capture spectrally-rich Earth observation data.

Dhruva Space cofounder and chief executive Sanjay Nekkanti said, “Following a successful qualification of the P-30 onboard ISRO’s PSLV-C58, Dhruva Space is excited to take its indigenously-developed P-30 satellite platform to global market.”

“We are confident this multilateral, collaborative approach drives innovation, brings down costs, and invests in commercial capabilities to grow the business opportunities that can serve other customers and further foster a global Space economy,” he added.

Founded in 2012 by Nekkanti, Chaitanya Dora Surapureddy, Abhay Egoor and Krishna Teja Penamakuru, Dhruva Space provides full-stack engineering solutions to enable ‘faster, more reliable and more cost-effective access to space. The startup also provides its clients with integrated access to owning and operating space-based assets.

The Hyderabad-based space engineering solution provider marked the final close of its Series A funding round at INR 123 Cr ($15 Mn) in April last year. It is backed by Indian Angel Network Alpha Fund, Blue Ashva Capital, Silverneedle Ventures, BIG Global Investment JSC (BITEXCO Group), IvyCap Ventures, Mumbai Angels, and Blume Founders Fund, among others.

The development comes at a time when there is a growing attention in the space sector from the central government as well as the investment firms.

In October 2024, the union cabinet approved setting up a INR 1,000 VC fund to aid the growth of the country’s space economy. The fund was initially announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2024 speech.

SIDBI Venture Capital has been selected as the fund manager for the venture capital fund, earlier in March.

This fund allocation is aligned with the Centre’s plan of taking the Indian space economy to a $44 Bn market potential by 2033 from $8.4 Bn in 2022, where it also aims to expand India’s share in the global space economy to 8-10% by 2040.

With the global satellite giants eyeing their share in the Indian market, spacetech startups in the country have been strengthening their research and development (R&D) efforts as well as ramping up their manufacturing capabilities with the funding from investors.

Since the start of this year, startups including OmSpace Rocket and Exploration, Sisir Radar, Astrogate Labs and SatLeo Labs, among others have raised capital.