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Pixxel
Pixxel (pik·sl) is a US-Indian private space technology company building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.
Pixxel was founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019 while studying at BITS Pilani. In 2023, the company was named one of TIME's 100 best Inventions in the Sustainability category and a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2024. It was Asia's only space startup to qualify for the 2019 Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles. Pixxel's mission is to build a health monitor for the planet.
Pixxel's hyperspectral satellites are designed to detect, monitor, and predict threats invisible to satellites in orbit today. This is made possible by the hyperspectral cameras' ability to capture additional wavelengths of light across a broad and continuous range on the electromagnetic spectrum beyond those typically observed by conventional satellite imaging systems. This technology provides detailed information about the health and composition of the Earth's surface, supporting decision-making in agriculture, energy, mining, infrastructure, environment and more.
Pixxel is also building Aurora, its Earth Observation platform, which intends to make remote sensing accessible by simplifying the visualization and analysis of remote sensing datasets.
Pixxel has launched and operated three demonstration hyperspectral satellites with 10-30 meter spatial resolutions. The company plans to launch six commercial 5m resolution hyperspectral Earth observation small satellites, named Fireflies, in 2025 and eighteen more by 2026. Pixxel partnered with Dragonfly Aerospace to develop the hyperspectral payloads.
While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Awais Ahmed was one of the founding members and engineering lead at team Hyperloop India, a national finalist at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017. This team was the only one from India to win and was invited to SpaceX HQ to build, demonstrate, and race their Hyperloop vehicle. This experience inspired Ahmed to focus on space innovation.
Identifying a gap in spectral resolution and the need for more detailed satellite imagery available in the market, Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal co-founded Pixxel in 2019 to provide high-resolution hyperspectral data and address climate change and concerns across agriculture, mining, environment, energy and more.
Pixxel launched its first satellite, Shakuntala/TD-2, on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rideshare mission, Transporter-4, on April 1, 2022. Pixxel's third satellite, Anand, was scheduled to be launched in late 2020 on a Soyuz rocket. It later entered into an agreement with India's state-owned NSIL to use a PSLV rocket to launch it in early 2021. Its launch on board the PSLV-C51 was then delayed in February 2021 due to technical issues. Anand was launched on ISRO's PSLV-C54 successfully on 26 November 2022.
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Pixxel
Pixxel (pik·sl) is a US-Indian private space technology company building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.
Pixxel was founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019 while studying at BITS Pilani. In 2023, the company was named one of TIME's 100 best Inventions in the Sustainability category and a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2024. It was Asia's only space startup to qualify for the 2019 Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles. Pixxel's mission is to build a health monitor for the planet.
Pixxel's hyperspectral satellites are designed to detect, monitor, and predict threats invisible to satellites in orbit today. This is made possible by the hyperspectral cameras' ability to capture additional wavelengths of light across a broad and continuous range on the electromagnetic spectrum beyond those typically observed by conventional satellite imaging systems. This technology provides detailed information about the health and composition of the Earth's surface, supporting decision-making in agriculture, energy, mining, infrastructure, environment and more.
Pixxel is also building Aurora, its Earth Observation platform, which intends to make remote sensing accessible by simplifying the visualization and analysis of remote sensing datasets.
Pixxel has launched and operated three demonstration hyperspectral satellites with 10-30 meter spatial resolutions. The company plans to launch six commercial 5m resolution hyperspectral Earth observation small satellites, named Fireflies, in 2025 and eighteen more by 2026. Pixxel partnered with Dragonfly Aerospace to develop the hyperspectral payloads.
While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Awais Ahmed was one of the founding members and engineering lead at team Hyperloop India, a national finalist at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017. This team was the only one from India to win and was invited to SpaceX HQ to build, demonstrate, and race their Hyperloop vehicle. This experience inspired Ahmed to focus on space innovation.
Identifying a gap in spectral resolution and the need for more detailed satellite imagery available in the market, Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal co-founded Pixxel in 2019 to provide high-resolution hyperspectral data and address climate change and concerns across agriculture, mining, environment, energy and more.
Pixxel launched its first satellite, Shakuntala/TD-2, on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rideshare mission, Transporter-4, on April 1, 2022. Pixxel's third satellite, Anand, was scheduled to be launched in late 2020 on a Soyuz rocket. It later entered into an agreement with India's state-owned NSIL to use a PSLV rocket to launch it in early 2021. Its launch on board the PSLV-C51 was then delayed in February 2021 due to technical issues. Anand was launched on ISRO's PSLV-C54 successfully on 26 November 2022.