Mission Drishti, world’s first OptoSAR satellite, launched

S&T – SPACE

4 MAY 2026

• Mission Drishti, the world’s first OptoSAR satellite developed by the Bengaluru-based space start-up GalaxEye has been successfully launched aboard a Falcon 9 by SpaceX from Vandenberg, California.
• Weighing 190 kilograms, it is India’s largest privately developed earth observation satellite.
• “It is the first satellite globally to integrate Electro-Optical (EO) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors into a single operational platform, enabling all-weather, day-and-night imaging capabilities.
• This approach addresses long-standing limitations of conventional systems and enables more reliable and consistent data acquisition across diverse environmental conditions.