Pixxel has raised $95 million in funding and with the company's commercial Firefly satellites up in orbit selling data globally 'we know and seen what it takes to make this business work.'
A zero bid by the space sector start-up PixxelSpace India led consortium to bag the contract to launch and operate 12 earth observation satellite constellation has taken the industry by surprise.
What was supposed to be a public-private-partnership satellite constellation now seems to have turned to be just a partnership with private space sector companies with no financial involvement of the Indian government.
On Tuesday, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) announced that the PixxelSpace India led consortium consisting of Piersight Space, Satsure Analytics India and Dhruva Space has been selected to launch a constellation of 12 earth observation satellites over a five year period.
The consortium will design, build, and operate India's first fully indigenous commercial earth observation (EO) satellite under the pioneering EO-public-private partnership model.
IN-SPACe the regulator for the private space sector in India, said the outlay will be over Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion/$137 million), while remaining silent on the successful bid amount.
Curiously, IN-SPACe did not disclose the winning bid amount.
The officials said as per the scheme, the government will part fund the constellation and the lowest bidder for the government's financial support will win the mandate.
While the PixxelSpace India led consortium had quoted a 'zero bid' no need for financial assistance, it is learnt the two other bidders had quoted or wanted government funding assistance of Rs 97 crore (Rs 970 million) and Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion).
The basic understanding of PPP is that both the government and private parties will invest in a project.
"Here there is no government investment and it is just a partnership between the companies in the winning consortium," said a space sector official not wanting to be quoted.
"Further in the case of a zero bid, what is the hold that the government has on the successful bidder in realising the constellation? There is no guarantee of a buy back of the data generated by the constellation. The satellite specifications were given by IN-SPACe," a top official of a private space company said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
IN-SPACe in its statement announcing the selection of the PixxelSpace India led consortium said: 'Under the PPP framework, the Government of India will provide strategic, technical, and policy support, while the PixxelSpace India-led consortium will own and operate the EO system, including satellite manufacturing, launches from Indian soil, ground infrastructure, and commercialisation of data services.'
"I can't speak to anyone's bid numbers because that is a confidential part of the process," PixxelSpace CEO Awais Ahmed told this correspondent.
As regards the funding for the constellation Ahmed said: "We have the funding needed among the consortium members to mostly fund the satellite ourselves."
Each satellite's weight, Ahmed explained, would range between 100 and 300 kg with a life span of about 5 and 7 years. Replacement of satellites at the end of their life will be at the cost of the consortium.
With the zero bid raising various questions within the country's space industry Ahmed tried to clear the air with his message on X.
'Firstly, the PPP was set up in such a way that the programme was to be predominantly funded by the winning consortium themselves. Out of a Rs 1,200-1,500 crore programme depending on each consortium's projected costs, Rs 350 crore was to be given as a *loan* by IN-SPACe. This had to be paid back after operationalising the constellation and selling the data anyway,' Ahmed tweeted.
'The operating model being that the investment and the ownership of the satellite and data would lie with the private consortium and INSPACe would work with the companies to sell it to all divisions of the Indian government and the consortium would monetise it globally on their own,' Ahmed said.
'And so a 0 bid or a 97 crore bid (that another consortium bid and publicly confirmed as well) or a slightly higher bid for a *loan* didn't make a difference in the large scheme of things when one is executing a 1200+ (over Rs 1,200 crore) project and raising 1100+ crore (over Rs 1,100 crore) for it anyway,' Ahmed stated.
'We considered this initiative to bring data sovereignty to India as an important national strategic concern that it had to be done one way or another. And had to be done by someone who knew what this business entailed. And so we decided that we would not be outbid for it. Especially given how strong our technical bid was which had best in world capabilities some of which would be realised for the first time globally,' Ahmed said.
According to Ahmed, PixxelSpace India is building five very high resolution and two hyperspectral satellites. On their part Satsure Analytics India will build two multispectral satellites and PierSight Space two synthetic aperture radar satellites.
'And Dhruva Space is providing subsystems to the satellites and helping with the ground station infrastructure,' Ahmed said.
Pixxel, Ahmed said, has already raised $95 million to date in funding (other members of the consortium have also raised funds on their own) and with the company's commercial Firefly satellites up in orbit selling data globally already "we know and seen what it takes to make this business work."
"These satellites mentioned are also something all of us were building anyway and would have built despite the PPP. The PPP just provided a more formalized way to go about it," Ahmed remarked.
According to IN-SPACe the 12 satellites will be equipped with panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors and would deliver Analysis Ready Data (ARD) and Value-Added Services (VAS) for applications in climate change monitoring, disaster management, agriculture, infrastructure, marine surveillance, national security, and urban planning, while also catering to the global demand for high-quality geospatial intelligence.
The regulator said the selection follows a competitive bidding process. Three consortia were shortlisted after rigorous technical evaluation:
'Following the financial bid assessment, the PixxelSpace India-led consortium emerged as the successful bidder,' IN-SPACe said in its statement.
IN-SPACe officials remained silent when asked about the bid.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff