India-made satellite to launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 on June 13

BENGALURU: Azista BST Aerospace (ABA), which aims to mass manufacture satellites in India for the global market, will launch its first satellite — ABA First Runner (AFR) — onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday (June 13) at 2.49am as part of the Transporter 8 Mission.
ABA is a joint venture between Azista Industries and Berlin Space Technologies. The firm owns and operates a factory in Ahmedabad, India, for manufacturing small 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.
Stating that AFR represents the first satellite of its size and performance built by the private space industry in India capable of supporting various critical applications for civilian and defence purposes, 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.”
ABA managing director Srinivas Reddy Male said AFR’s launch marks an exciting beginning to support the realisation of satellite constellations for various applications.
“Our factory is already geared up to produce 10 of these satellites in 2024. We are grateful for the support from Isro, the Indian National Space Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), and the Indian Space Association (ISpA) to help us achieve this major milestone,” Male said.
The firm is already in the process of realising the next set of satellites to demonstrate its capabilities with versatile payloads with its modular satellite buses. Several of these satellites will be launched within the next 12-24 months to establish space heritage and solidify vertically integrated production capabilities from India, it added.
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.”