May was a blockbuster month for Indian space startups as they made a significant impression not just in India but also globally. 

Bengaluru based space startup GalaxEye successfully launched Mission Drishti, the world’s first OptoSAR satellite aboard a Falcon 9 by SpaceX from Vandenberg, California.

India’s largest privately developed earth observation satellite, Mission Drishti, is a dual-use machine that supports use cases across defence, agriculture, disaster management, maritime monitoring, and infrastructure planning.

The satellite is expected to complement India’s broader initiatives, including the active 29 earth Observation satellites outlined in ISRO’s recent annual report. A few days after the successful launch GalaxEye said that contact with the satellite is firmly established.

This was followed by another Bengaluru space startup, Pixxel, winning a contract from the US’s National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) for advanced commercial remote sensing capabilities.

This contract has been awarded by NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office under the Strategic Commercial Enhancements Commercial Solutions Opening to support the US government’s effort to evaluate and integrate emerging commercial hyperspectral data sources into the agency’s expanding remote sensing architecture.

The startup also entered a strategic partnership with Sarvam to develop and build India’s first orbital data centre satellite — Pathfinder, a 200 kg-class satellite, is scheduled to reach orbit as early as Q4 2026.

Under the partnership, Pixxel will design, build, launch, and operate the satellite, and Sarvam will provide the AI backbone, handling both training and inference directly in orbit, with full-stack language models running on board the satellite. The Pathfinder satellite will be developed at Gigapixxel, Pixxel’s upcoming facility.

Nine Indian space-tech companies: Astrogate Labs, Astrobase Space Technologies, VyomIC, Suhora, Kepler Aerospace Ltd, Hyspace Technologies, TakeMe2Space, Jarbits Pvt Ltd and Dhruva Space took part in the Space Meetings Veneto 2026, at Venice, Italy and multiple partnerships and collaboration announcements emerged from the visit.

Karnataka-based Astrobase Space Technologies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Impulso Space to support customer access and explore launch opportunities through integrated mission management and launch service networks.

Kepler Aerospace signed a framework agreement with Apogeo Space to expand global Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS) infrastructure and strengthen satellite collaboration between India and Europe, while VyomIC showcased its array of technologies during the event and announced a strategic collaboration focused on building next-generation navigation and resilient infrastructure technologies.

Back home Skyroot Aerospace raised $60 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion to become India’s first space-tech unicorn. 

The Hyderabad based startup said that this capital will go toward scaling the launch of the Vikram-1.

India’s first privately built orbital rocket Vikram-1 is slated to be launched later this year from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The company said that this capital will go toward scaling launch cadence for Vikram-1, expanding manufacturing and developing Vikram-2 — a 1-tonne class vehicle with an advanced cryogenic upper stage.

AnduraX, an Andhra Pradesh-based space startup developing India’s first private Reusable Reentry Vehicle said that it is conducting the high-altitude balloon drop test in the first week of June 2026. The test will release an experimental vehicle from near-stratospheric conditions.

ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), and Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), an autonomous R&D laboratory under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) signed a MoU to design and develop state-of-the-art high power systems, employing homegrown semiconductor technologies, for Deep space exploratory observations. 

The key objectives of this partnership include joint R&D through collaborative projects targeting deployable solutions by leveraging combined expertise in building high power amplifier technologies for Deep Space Communications. Besides it will also focus on indigenous semiconductor technologies by utilising homegrown highly integrated compact Gallium Nitride (GaN) chip technologies from DRDO’s Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre.

Further, to promote private participation in the space sector, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has invited private Indian Industries to participate in an Expression of Interest (EOI) for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Technology-Transfer to Indian Private Entity.

IN-SPACe which is the single window agency for all space sector activities of private entities in the country said it has taken the initiative for technology-transfer of PSLV for end-to-end realisation, operation and commercialisation of the launch vehicle by a suitable private Indian industry.

It said that to ensure seamless technology absorption, infrastructural and hand-holding support will be provided by ISRO for 30 months or until realisation and launch of two PSLV vehicles by the selected party or whichever is earlier. This technology transfer of PSLV restricted only to private Indian entities.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent foreign visit at a Government-to-Government level, MoUs were signed between ISRO and the Norwegian Space Agency on cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. 

Also, in Italy it was agreed to strengthen the partnership on earth observation, heliophysics and space exploration, with focused thematic engagement and to explore cooperation on access to space and protection of space infrastructures between ISRO and the Italian Space Agency.

hemanth.cs@thehindu.co.in