Grahaa Space has got permission from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN–SPACe) to launch its first nanosatellite as a technology demonstration at the end of November, said the Bangalore-based space technology startup on Monday.
The nanosatellite (or nanosat) called Solaras S2 will be launched from the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil through the Hanbit-Nano launch vehicle developed by South Korea-based Innospace. A nanosat is a small artificial satellite that typically has a mass between 1 and 10 kilogram. They are popular for scientific research, Earth observation and commercial ventures because of their compact size.
Grahaa, which is co-founded by a former Indian Space Research Organisation scientist and a former IBM executive, is working to provide near-real time Earth observation data on-demand using a constellation of nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit. Grahaa last year signed up with Innospace for its Solaras-S2 technology demonstration mission to get qualification for its systems.
Grahaa, which is backed by the Viskan group of companies, was incubated at the Space Technology Incubation and Innovation Center (STIIC) of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Solaras S2 mission will qualify our nanosatellite bus and platform and allow us to assess the performance. It is a focused technical step that confirms our readiness for the next phase,” said Ramesh Kumar V, cofounder and chief executive officer, Grahaa Space.
“The upcoming missions — scheduled to be launched in early 2026 with Skyroot — will qualify the communications module, gather geospatial data from the optical payload and establish intersatellite links. Our work is aimed at building a reliable nanosatellite capability that can support various on-ground applications using near-real-time geospatial data,” he said.
Grahaa’s technology stack includes high-resolution optical payloads, inter-satellite links, and onboard processing to enable live streaming of geospatial data. IN-SPACe is a single-window, autonomous agency that promotes, authorizes, and supervises private sector participation in space activities.
