While recovery efforts are ongoing, the likelihood of recovery currently appears low.
It is official now. Indian satellite start-up GalaxEye Space's Mission Drishti, the country's first Made in India OptoSAR, a strategic satellite is lost.
After maintaining silence for over two months, the company on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, announced that its 190 kg the 2-in-1 satellite -- integrating Electro-Optical (EO) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors into a single operational platform, enabling all-weather, day-and-night imaging capabilities- was lost with remote chances of its recovery.
The satellite was launched in space by the US based SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on May 3, 2026.
'Mission Drishti marks the culmination of years of innovation, engineering, and execution by our team,' said Suyash Singh, Founder & CEO, GalaxEye Space.
'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.
'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,' Singh added.
Space Weather Anomaly
GalaxEye Space said it is now incorporating the learnings into its next-generation spacecraft architecture.
'The company aims to launch two new OptoSAR satellites within the next 24 months while significantly expanding its in-house capabilities to further strengthen quality, reliability and execution,' GalaxEye Space said.
According to GalaxEye Space, its satellite successfully established communication and completed a major portion of its planned Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP).
The mission validated key spacecraft systems, successfully executed critical deployment and attitude control actvities, operated onboard computing and communications systems, and demonstrated GalaxEye's fully in-house mission operations capability through its Mission Control Centre in Bengaluru.
In the final stage of LEOP, the maiden 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.
GalaxEye Recovery Efforts
During its active operating phase over a few weeks, Mission Drishti successfully validated critical technologies, operational processes, and infrastructure required to design, build, launch and operate advanced space systems.
The maiden mission also strengthened customer engagement and market confidence, reinforcing demand for the unique Earth observation capabilities that GalaxEye Space has developed, the company added.
A couple of days after the satellite's launch reports emerged about its tumbling in space while GalaxEye Space and its CEO Singh maintained a studied silence.
An industry official on the condition of anonymity told this writer that all the systems-imported and domestically sourced- should be tested.
On May 7 the company on X announced 'Mission Drishti Update : Contact with the satellite is firmly established.'
<pclass="rbig">On the same day a person who goes under the handle Astro_Neel said: 'So are we all going to just casually ignore the fact that in the publicly available open-source data, anyone can see that Drishti is still tumbling in orbit at the rate of ~3°/sec (or one rotation every two minutes) ever since it was deployed?' <p">Replying to that on May 8 Singh on X said: 'Love the interest in Drishti.
'Never saw this level on interest or info floating around on previously launched sats. Also, The date is 3rd May.
'Can you please share the latest analysis.
'Also, since you raised this question, Have you ever done a LEOPs (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) of 190 of SAR based Satellite?
'Oh oops, you must have worked on a cubesat less than 10 kgs because 190 Kgs in private ecosystem was never launched till date.
'Hold on buddy, Not everyday these kind of satellites get launched. If something is wrong, we will let the world know. Keep calm.'
OptoSAR Satellite Mission
Post the satellite launch there was no communication from the company regarding the deployment of solar panels, satellite status and others.
"As per the industry grapevine, the satellite's solar panel did not deploy.
"If the solar panel does not open, it will get power from only one panel which is not enough to drive Reaction Wheels required for maintaining angular stability," said a retired senior Indian Space Research Organisation official, not wanting to be quoted by name for this report.
"It will be prudent for Indian start-ups to test all the systems-imported and domestically sourced- before fitting them," the retired ISRO official added.
IN-SPACe Expert Support
Former Deputy Director (Technology & Systems), ISRO Dr Mukund Rao said Indian space satellite start ups need experienced people and there are many retired ISRO officials whose knowledge could be tapped.
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) should also assist GalaxEye Space, he said.
"IN-SPACe have a panel of sectoral experts for the benefit of the private players in the space sector. The list of experts is on our web site," Dr Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe, told this correspondent.
Added Rajeev Jyoti, Director: "The resident expert is free of cost for discussion. However, if they (companies) invite him/her then they have to take care of the logistics."
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
