Bengaluru Spacetech firm gets IN–SPACe clearance to launch a nano satellite mission by month end

Grahaa Space, a Bengaluru-based spacetech startup, has obtained authorisation from Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN–SPACe) to launch its maiden nano satellite mission called Solaras S2, as technology demonstration by the end of November.

The launch will happen from Alcântara Space Center (CEA) in Brazil through the Hanbit-Nano launch vehicle developed by Korea-based Innospace, according to the company.

“Solaras S2 mission will qualify our nano satellite 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, Founder and CEO, Grahaa Space.

According to Mr. Kumar, this progress has been possible with the support from STIIC incubation centre at IIST Trivandrum and IN-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.’’

The mission was aimed at building a reliable nano-satellite capability that could support various on-ground applications using near-real-time geospatial data, he added.

Co-Founded by an ex-ISRO scientist, Dr. Loganathan Muthuswamy, and an ex-IBMer, Ramesh Kumar V, Grahaa space is one of the newspace startups from India working towards providing near-real time earth observation data on-demand using an advanced constellation of nano satellites from low earth orbit.

In 2024, Grahaa Space has signed up with South Korea based Innospace – for its Solaras-S2 technology demonstration mission to qualify some of its systems and subsystems.

Backed by the Viskan group of companies, Grahaa Space has been incubated at the Space Technology Incubation and Innovation Centre (STIIC) within the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) premises, Thiruvananthapuram.