3 Indian Space Startups Launch New Technologies on Falcon 9
Dhruva Space, SatLeo Labs and TakeMe2Space have sent new satellite technologies into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-18 mission.
Three Indian space startups have sent technology demonstrations into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare mission, highlighting the expanding role of private companies in India’s space sector.
The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carried around 130 payloads, including missions involving Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space and TakeMe2Space and Ahmedabad-based SatLeo Labs.
Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 is part of its Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads programme and uses the company’s P-30 satellite platform to host payloads. One of the hosted systems is SatLeo Labs’ TAPAS-1, a small thermal-imaging payload designed to measure land-surface temperatures using long-wave infrared sensing.
The technology could support applications such as monitoring urban heat, crop stress, industrial activity and environmental changes. SatLeo plans to use the demonstration as a step toward a proposed thermal-imaging satellite constellation.
Meanwhile, TakeMe2Space has launched MOI-1A, an orbital computing satellite equipped with an Nvidia Jetson Orin NX system, 2TB of onboard storage and a multispectral imager. The company says the satellite can process data in orbit using AI models instead of sending large amounts of raw information back to Earth.
MOI-1A replaces the company’s earlier spacecraft, which was lost during the PSLV-C62 failure in January 2026.
From measuring Earth’s temperature to running AI in space, Indian startups are clearly taking the “innovation” part of space seriously. Earth observation just got a little more tech-heavy.
