SpaceX Falcon 9 Deploys Multiple Indian Payloads in Orbit

SpaceX launched its 18th Transporter rideshare mission on October 2 from the Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, delivering 130 payloads into orbit. The mission included multiple payloads developed by Indian companies. Dhruva Space deployed its Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads-2 mission at 1 a.m. Indian Standard Time on October 2. The satellite hosts multiple in-orbit demonstration missions, including a star tracker from France-based Sodern ArianeGroup and SatLeo Labs' TAPAS-1 payload. Dhruva Space handled the end-to-end launch integration of the satellite in-house. The mission is supported by the company's global ground infrastructure, including an owned and operated ground station in Luleå, Sweden, which is authorised by the Government of India. SatLeo Labs developed TAPAS-1, which stands for Thermal Access Platform for Analytics and Solutions. It is India's first dedicated commercial CubeSat-category thermal payload and the opening flight of the country's first commercial thermal intelligence platform. Based in Ahmedabad, SatLeo Labs stated that TAPAS-1 uses Thermal Infrared sensing to capture temperature information that normal optical cameras cannot see. TakeMe2Space also launched its MOI-1A satellite as part of the mission. The 14 kg satellite carried 117 trillion operations per second of onboard computing capacity, 2 terabytes of storage, and a nine-band multispectral imager. The satellite allows customers to run artificial intelligence models directly on Earth-observation data in orbit before sending the insights to the ground, which supports applications like agricultural monitoring, mining, and supply-chain intelligence. Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre Chairperson Pawan Kumar Goenka stated that the deployment is a significant day for India's private space sector. IN-SPACe authorised the Indian satellites and hosted payload on the flight.

Context

Private space companies in India are increasingly building and launching their own satellites and technology payloads through international rideshare missions. Rideshare launches allow smaller companies to send payloads into space by sharing space on a single large rocket alongside many other missions.