Dhruva Space Private Limited is India’s 1st private space company. It was founded on 26 November 2012 by Sanjay Nekkanti later Krishna Teja Penamakuru, Abhay Egoor, and Chaitanya Dora joined as a founding member. It is a national award-winning company technology company based in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Its founding team members are technology and business leaders, currently, the whole team size is around 60 members, and they are all from different backgrounds in business development, engineering, marketing, research, legal, and many more.
Dhruva Space offers three services in the space sector First, creates satellite platforms ranging from 1kg to 300kg. Second, launches satellites into the low earth orbit and beyond, and third, it builds ground stations to track and control satellites. It provides full-stack engineering solutions in the space sector.
Satellite Platform offered by Dhruva Space
The Satellite platforms offered by Dhruva Space are scalable, modular weighting from 1 kg to 300 kg accommodating defense, scientific and commercial missions in lower earth orbit and beyond.
It proposes three types of satellite platforms first is the CubeSat which is known as P-DOT second is the Nano Sat which is called P-30 and third is the Micro Sat known as P-90. All three platforms are fully customizable, scalable for the constellation, LEO optimized, and have a space-grade solar array.
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P-DOT (Cube Sat)
It is compact, modular, and best-suitable for machine-to-machine (M2M), Internet of Things (IoT), and technology demonstration applications.
| Satellite Bus | 0.5 U to 12 U |
| Platform mass | 1- 25 Kg |
| Payload Power | upto 20 w |
| Nominal mission life | Upto 5 years |
| Up to 5 years | Up to 0.1 degree |
P- 30 (Nano Sat)
It is compact, modular, and suitable for medium-resolution remote sensing payloads.
| Satellite Bus Volume | 300x300x300 mm |
| Platform mass | Upto 10-50 kg |
| Payload power | Upto 30 w |
| Nominal Mission life | Upto 5 years |
| Pointing Accuracy | 0.1 degree |
P-90 (Micro Sat)
It is robust, scalable, and suitable for high-resolution earth observable payloads.
| Satellite Bus Volume | 900x900x900 mm |
| Platform mass | Upto 500 kg |
| Payload power | Upto 250 w |
| Nominal mission lifetime | Upto 5 years |
| Pointing Accuracy | 0.1 degree |
Satellite launching services of Dhruva Space
Dhruva Space Private Limited has signed an MOU with Skyroot Aerospace, ISRO, SpaceX, and other companies around the world which has their launching system. It provides the launching of satellites by PSLV, Starship, Falcon, and Vikram. It also provides a launching facility for small satellites from the ISS (International Space Station). Currently, it launches small satellites only in LEO ( Lower Earth Orbit ) but planning for MEO/GEO/Interplanetary missions in the future.
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This startup has developed its satellite orbital deployer known as DSOD ( Dhruva Space Satellite Orbital Deployer ) in five different categories DSOD 1U, DSOD 3U, DSOD 6U, DSOD 12U, and DSOD 16U, all these require less than 2m/s ejection velocity.
Missions of Dhruva Space
On 30 June 2022, this startup successfully launched its DSOD ( Dhruva Space Satellite Orbital Deployer ) 1U from ISRO’s PSLV-C53 mission. A Satellite Orbital Deployer is a device that is used to release multiple satellites from a single launch vehicle into a desired orbit.
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On 26 November 2022, it successfully launched its P-DOT satellite platform from ISRO’s PSLV-C54 mission to validate its Thybolt satellites.
On 22 April 2023, it successfully launched its DSOL (Dhruva Space Orbital Link ), DSOD 3U, and DSOD 6U from ISRO’s PSLV-C55 mission. All three missions are experimental.
Team of Dhruva Space
This startup is a team of around 60 people, Sanjay Nekkanti is the CEO, Krishna Teja Penamakuru is the COO, Abhay Egoor is the CTO, and Chaitanya Dora is the CFO they all have different expertise and strengths.
Infrastructure
It is currently based in 10000 square-foot facility in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Recently it revealed a blueprint of a 280,000-square-foot new facility that accommodates Design, Engineering, Assembly, Integration, and Testing for large-scale production under one roof in Hyderabad, In which 20,000 square feet is dedicated to Solar Array assembly. This new facility is expected to be completed in 5 years.
