BENGALURU: Indian spacetech firm Dhruva Space is set to launch its first commercial satellite mission, LEAP-1, in the third quarter of 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
Confirming the development Monday, the firm said the mission brings together payloads from Australian firms Akula Tech and Esper Satellites, hosted on Dhruva’s indigenously developed P-30 satellite platform. It marks the Hyderabad-based company’s transition from technology demonstrator to full-fledged commercial player in the global Space market.
“LEAP-1 mission will carry two payloads: Akula Tech’s Nexus-01, an artificial intelligence module for on-orbit data processing and re-training, and Esper Satellites’ OTR-2, a hyperspectral imaging system. Both are designed to support applications in defence, disaster response, agriculture, and environmental monitoring,” Dhruva said.
Following its successful in-orbit qualification of the P-30 bus during the LEAP-TD mission on Isro’s PSLV-C58 in Jan 2024, Dhruva Space now expands into commercial operations. The mission will also include Ground Station-as-a-Service and real-time operations via the firm’s Integrated Space Operations & Command Suite (ISOCS).
“This is a major milestone for us and for Indo-Australian collaboration in Space,” said Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO and Co-founder of Dhruva Space. “We are seeing increasing global traction from partners in Europe and Asia, and missions like LEAP-1 prove that affordable, scalable satellite solutions can come from India.”
Akula Tech’s AI system aims to place autonomous, adaptive intelligence directly in orbit. “This launch will give flight heritage to five of our AI software products. It will allow AI/ML models to retrain onboard and provide real-time insights, effectively putting a geospatial analyst in Space,” Nishq Ravindranath, Chief AI Officer, said.
Esper Satellites, launching its fourth mission, sees this as validation of its low-cost approach. “We’ve delivered an entire campaign for under $1 million,” said Co-founder Shoaib Iqbal. “That’s cutting-edge Earth Observation at a fraction of traditional costs.”
Dhruva said that the LEAP-1 patch, revealed alongside the announcement, symbolises the strategic triad of India, Australia, and the United States—reflecting a broader shift in commercial Space collaboration.
Dhruva Space, crediting early support from Isro, IN-SPACe, and the Australian Space Agency, whose engagement in 2022 helped build a long-term commercial bridge, said: “With interest now coming from firms in Italy and France, the LEAP programme is growing into a recurring platform for hosted payload missions. LEAP-1 is not just a technological deployment, it signals Dhruva’s entry into global Space services at scale.”
Confirming the development Monday, the firm said the mission brings together payloads from Australian firms Akula Tech and Esper Satellites, hosted on Dhruva’s indigenously developed P-30 satellite platform. It marks the Hyderabad-based company’s transition from technology demonstrator to full-fledged commercial player in the global Space market.
“LEAP-1 mission will carry two payloads: Akula Tech’s Nexus-01, an artificial intelligence module for on-orbit data processing and re-training, and Esper Satellites’ OTR-2, a hyperspectral imaging system. Both are designed to support applications in defence, disaster response, agriculture, and environmental monitoring,” Dhruva said.
Following its successful in-orbit qualification of the P-30 bus during the LEAP-TD mission on Isro’s PSLV-C58 in Jan 2024, Dhruva Space now expands into commercial operations. The mission will also include Ground Station-as-a-Service and real-time operations via the firm’s Integrated Space Operations & Command Suite (ISOCS).
“This is a major milestone for us and for Indo-Australian collaboration in Space,” said Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO and Co-founder of Dhruva Space. “We are seeing increasing global traction from partners in Europe and Asia, and missions like LEAP-1 prove that affordable, scalable satellite solutions can come from India.”
Akula Tech’s AI system aims to place autonomous, adaptive intelligence directly in orbit. “This launch will give flight heritage to five of our AI software products. It will allow AI/ML models to retrain onboard and provide real-time insights, effectively putting a geospatial analyst in Space,” Nishq Ravindranath, Chief AI Officer, said.
Esper Satellites, launching its fourth mission, sees this as validation of its low-cost approach. “We’ve delivered an entire campaign for under $1 million,” said Co-founder Shoaib Iqbal. “That’s cutting-edge Earth Observation at a fraction of traditional costs.”
Dhruva said that the LEAP-1 patch, revealed alongside the announcement, symbolises the strategic triad of India, Australia, and the United States—reflecting a broader shift in commercial Space collaboration.
Dhruva Space, crediting early support from Isro, IN-SPACe, and the Australian Space Agency, whose engagement in 2022 helped build a long-term commercial bridge, said: “With interest now coming from firms in Italy and France, the LEAP programme is growing into a recurring platform for hosted payload missions. LEAP-1 is not just a technological deployment, it signals Dhruva’s entry into global Space services at scale.”
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