Mission Drishti: India’s First OptoSAR Earth Observation Satellite
Bengaluru-based space start-up GalaxEye announced that communication with Mission Drishti—the world’s first OptoSAR satellite and India’s largest privately built Earth observation satellite—has been lost.Mission Drishti is a next-generation, high-performance Earth observation satellite designed and engineered entirely within India’s private sector. Weighing 190 kilograms, it represents a major technological milestone as the first operational spacecraft in global history to fuse optical and radar imaging sensors onto a single, compact satellite chassis.Launched By The Manufacturer: Developed by GalaxEye, a deep-tech space start-up incubated out of Bengaluru.Launch Vehicle & Site: Launched into orbit on May 3, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.
Aim of the Mission:
To build a sovereign, non-blind satellite network capable of monitoring high-altitude borders and maritime zones without interruptions from weather or nightfall.
To plug critical intelligence gaps for the Indian Armed Forces along borders with China and Pakistan, ending reliance on delayed foreign commercial imagery during strategic standoffs.
