Tata Advanced Systems (TASL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has entered into an agreement with Nasdaq-listed Satellogic to build low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and develop space technologies in India.
Under the agreement, TASL will set up a satellite Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) plant at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka to co-develop a satellite design with Satellogic. The companies will manufacture satellites and develop imagery in India for national defence and commercial applications, TASL said in a statement on Wednesday.
This collaboration is a first step in TASL’s satellite strategy and a significant milestone for Satellogic as it enters the fast-growing Indian defence and commercial market, it said.
“Space is important to TASL not just as a business but also due to its culture of precision that will help other activities in TASL,” its CEO and MD Sukaran Singh said.
“Additionally, TASL will also work with local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for payloads and other technologies to bolster India content,” he added.
TASL and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design and work together to integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite that will generate a diverse range of data over India. The projects will start with training, knowledge transfer and local assembly of optical sub-metre resolution EO satellites, the first of which is planned to be launched as TSAT-1A.
TASL, the aerospace and defence company of Tata Group, and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design and work together to integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite that will generate a diverse range of data over India.
“This collaboration will accelerate space capacity building for one of the largest nations in the world with the goal of enabling the advancement of commercial space capabilities and greater access to critical information for a range of applications such as security, sustainability and energy,” said Satellogic CEO and founder Emiliano Kargieman.
This contract marks Satellogic’s second space systems customer, following an agreement with an international space agency.