ISRO | Pixr8 News

19Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Space Tech Startup Pixxel secures USD 5 million in funding

Bengaluru, 19th Aug 2020: Indian space-technology startup Pixxel has raised USD 5 million in a seed round led by Blume Ventures, growX ventures, and Lightspeed India. The round also included contributions from Inventus Capital India and other angel investors including Stanford Angels and Ryan Johnson, a veteran in the earth imaging space, it said in a statement. The new funding will strengthen Pixxels plans for its first satellite launch later this year and accelerate development of the second satellite, it said. In conjunction with the funding, Ryan Johnson, previously founder and CEO at Blackbridge, a Canadian earth- imaging company, and ex-President at Planet Labs, one of the largest satellite imaging companies in the world, will be joining the Board of Directors at the compan...

ISRO to Launch Incubators for Grooming Space Startups

13Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

ISRO to Launch Incubators for Grooming Space Startups

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch incubators across the country for the purpose of grooming the startups that build fresh solutions in rocketry, communication satellites and applications from remote sensing data. The basic motive is to assist the space startups to establish themselves and also create a strong local commercial space ecosystem in the country. As of now, ISRO has got involved with various startups through its commercial arm Antrix Corp. Some of these companies include Bellatrix Aerospace, Aniara Communications and Exseed Space. At present, the research organization is looking forward to incubate startups that would set up applications, offer services and products which it can use internally and help them grow. “We are looking at multipl...

25Jun By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Space Centre ISRO Developed Technology to Alert Users at Unmanned Crossings

Satellite-based chip systems will now alert road users at unmanned level crossings about approaching trains and also help in tracking train movement on a real-time basis. On a pilot basis, the Mumbai and Guwahati Rajdhani trains will be equipped with this system. Road users will be warned by hooters once a train approaches an unmanned level crossing as railways are installing ISRO-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips on locomotives of trains. There will be hooters at 20 unmanned level crossings on Rajdhani routes for Guwahati and Mumbai, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project. More trains will be equipped with such technology in a phase-wise manner, according to the plan. About 500 metres before the level crossings, the hooter will be activated ...

5May By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

India is Set to Launch GSAT-9, A Gift to India’s Neighbours By PM Modi

India is set to launch its Geostationary Communication Satellite (GSAT-9), the South Asia Communication Satellite, that will boost connectivity among nations in the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the South Asia Satellite would be India's "priceless gift" to its neighbouring countries on his Mann ki Baat programme on Sunday. The satellite, which costs around Rs 235 crore, will blast at 4.57 PM. The Geostationary Communication Satellite, built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, about 135 km from here. GSAT-9, considered as a gift to its South Asian neighbours, is all set to ride piggyback on the space agency's rocket GSLV-F09 with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage. ISRO Chair...

25Apr By RishabhNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Space Agency ISRO Develops “Solar Calculator” Android App

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today said its Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre has developed an android app for computing the solar energy potential of a place. Developed at the behest of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the app is considered to be a "very useful" tool for installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels that is used for tapping solar energy, it said. The ISRO said the app provides monthly and yearly solar potential and the minimum and the maximum temperatures at any location. It also displays the location of a place on the satellite image as well as the days length there during different periods in a year. According to the ISRO, features of the app include providing of solar energy potential at any given location, the requ...

SpaceX Aborts Launch After ‘Odd’ Rocket Engine Behaviour

19Feb By reutersNo Comments

News

SpaceX Aborts Launch After ‘Odd’ Rocket Engine Behaviour

SpaceX aborted its planned Dragon cargo launch to the International Space Station just seconds before liftoff today due to a "slightly odd" technical issue with the Falcon 9 rocket engine. The delay was made "out of an abundance of caution," a SpaceX spokesman said, and came a day after engineers discovered a small helium leak in the engine's second stage. "All systems go, except the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd," SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk said on Twitter after the launch was scrubbed. "Standing down to investigate." Musk added that the issue was "99 per cent likely to be fine." "But that one per cent chance isn't worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day." The next launch attempt is scheduled for 9:38 am tomo...

How Much Profit ISRO Made on The Launch of World Record 104 Satellites?

16Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

How Much Profit ISRO Made on The Launch of World Record 104 Satellites?

Yesterday, ISRO (India Space Research Organisation) has launched record 104 satellites beating Russia's record which was 37 satellites in one go. The record launch has established more credibility of ISRO in international space market. Apart from technology and its 100% successful foreign satellite launches, ISRO also challenging other international players on the pricing point. As per the data available, for a satellite launch SpaceX (company owned by Elon Musk) charge around USD 60 million, while ISRO charged an average of USD 3 million per satellite between 2013 and 2015. Last year in FY16, ISRO made 239 crore through commercial launch. The forex revenue for ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, went up 204.9 percent in 2015. In 2016, ISRO launched 10 Indian satellites and 22...

TeamIndus Inks Pact With ISRO; Aims to Raise $45 Million By October 2017

1Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

TeamIndus Inks Pact With ISRO; Aims to Raise $45 Million By October 2017

TeamIndus has inked a commercial launch contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its mission to land a spacecraft on the moon as it attempts to win the USD 25 million Google Lunar XPRIZE. TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE that requires privately funded teams to land their spacecraft on the surface of the moon, travel 500 metres and broadcast high definition video, images and data back to earth. The team, which has received support from industry veterans including Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Venu Srinivasan (TVS Group) among others, also aims to raise about USD 45 million by October next year to fund the project. "The total expense of the project is abo...

8 Key Points of India’s Own Space Shuttle RLV-TD Successful Launch

23May By AdityaNo Comments

News

8 Key Points of India’s Own Space Shuttle RLV-TD Successful Launch

India today successfully launched the first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), capable of launching satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. "Mission accomplished successfully," an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesman said, soon after RLV-TD HEX-01 was flight tested with the take off at 7 am. Here are the some key points of India's own Own Space Shuttle RLV-TD: This is the first time ISRO has launched a winged flight vehicle, which glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 kilometres from the coast. Known as hypersonic flight experiment, it was about 10 minutes mission from liftoff to splashdown. The RLV-TD is a scale...

Why US Companies are Afraid of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)?

22Apr By NitishNo Comments

News

Why US Companies are Afraid of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)?

Amid the US push to expand cooperation with India in the space sector, the country's nascent private space industry has expressed its opposition to the large-scale use of low-cost ISRO launch vehicles for putting American satellites into orbits. Such a move, corporate leaders and officials of the fast- emerging American private space industry told lawmakers this week would be detrimental to the future health of the private sector US space companies as it would be tough for them to compete against low-cost Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launch vehicles, which they alleged are subsidised by the Indian government. "I think the concern about using Indian boosters is not so much the transfer of sensitive technology to a nation that is a fellow democracy, but rather whether the In...

ISRO Developing ‘Front-End Chip’ for Satellite Navigation System

12Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

News

ISRO Developing ‘Front-End Chip’ for Satellite Navigation System

IANS- The Indian space agency is in the process of getting ready the radio frequency chips for its satellite navigation system, a top official said on Thursday. "We are in the process of developing the front-end chip. The initial version is expected to be ready this year," A.S. Kiran Kumar, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman, told IANS in Sriharikota. Named as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), the system consists of a constellation of seven satellites of which the sixth was put into orbit on Thursday. He said the seventh navigation satellite will be launched next month. Kumar said the signals from the fifth navigation satellite-IRNSS-1E- launched last month is being received. He said the information received from the orbiting navigation...

ISRO Developed 1st Satellite-based Warning System For Unmanned Railway Crossings

6Feb By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

ISRO Developed 1st Satellite-based Warning System For Unmanned Railway Crossings

The first trial run for developing a satellite-based system to warn train drivers on unmanned railway crossings was conducted by ISRO scientists in Ahmedabad recently. Scientists at the city-based Space Applications Centre (SAC) are now in the process of commercially developing this system that will be fitted on 50 different trains across the country as a second part of the demonstration project. Of around 30,000 level crossings of the Railways, as many as 11,000 are unmanned. “An estimated 7,000 people die every year at these unmanned crossings in the country. We have successfully conducted the first test-drive in Ahmedabad for developing a satellite-controlled warning system for the Indian Railways that will alert the train driver well in advance about an approaching unmanned le...