India made satellite to launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
Satellite is manufactured by Azista BST Aerospace (ABA) which has factory in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Azista BST Aerospace which aspires to mass manufacture satellites in India will launch its first satellite ‘ABA First Runner’ on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 8 mission at 2:49AM IST on June 13th.
ABA is a joint venture between Azista Industries and Berlin Space Technologies which has a factory in Ahmedabad, India to manufacture satellites.
“Our installed annual production capacity of 100 microsatellites makes it the largest satellite manufacturing facility in India. We operate a 50,000-square-foot facility with state-of-the-art infrastructure to develop and manufacture highly reliable space systems,” the firm said, adding that its facility is capable of supporting production of two satellites per week.
The firm said, “AFR is an 80 kg satellite built on a modular bus platform and hosts a wide-swath optical remote sensing payload with both panchromatic & multispectral imaging capabilities.”
Azista BST Aerospace managing director Srinivas Reddy Male said, “The launch of AFR marks an exciting beginning to support the realization of satellite constellations for various applications. Our factory in Ahmedabad is already geared up to produce 10 of these satellites in 2024. We are grateful for the support from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indian National Space Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), and the Indian Space Association (ISpA) to help us achieve this major milestone.”
The firm is already in process of realising its next set of satellites, several of which will be launched in the next 12-24 months.
ABA director Sunil Indurti said, “ABA invites researchers and organisations interested in exploring the use of fresh satellite data for various geospatial applications to get in touch with us and take advantage of this exciting opportunity.”
