Pixxel Enters Service Agreement with Momentus for Second Satellite Launch
Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”), a commercial space company providing in-space satellite transportation and infrastructure services, and Pixxel, a Bengaluru headquartered space-tech startup, today announced the execution of a service agreement for delivering Pixxel’s second smallsat to SSO orbit in December 2021 onboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 launch, as well as options to fly again in 2022.
Pixxel is building a constellation of cutting-edge earth imaging small satellites that can provide real-time remote sensing data across the world. The Momentus Shuttle Service will provide a rideshare for multiple Pixxel spacecraft to predefined orbits. Founded in 2019 by then 21 year olds, Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, Pixxel satellites will help make the world a more sustainable place through highly accurate data-based insights in agriculture, climate change, forestry and other domains. Pixxel recently raised a funding of $5M, which the company is using to rapidly build and launch the second satellite with Momentus’ help.
Commenting on the agreement, Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel said, “We are excited to partner with Momentus to get our satellites up in orbit as soon as we can and get the data in the hands of our customers. Momentus’ launch and in-space transfer services provide us with the flexibility to get to the orbit we want, even on a rideshare mission. We look forward to working with them to help make space more accessible.”
“Pixxel is doing something innovative that hasn’t been done in India or the West,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. “With a shared belief in humanity’s expansion in space via in-situ resources, we wish this mission the ultimate success.”
Momentus has gained significant traction since its founding in 2017, attracting dozens of customers ranging from private commercial space companies to the likes of Lockheed Martin and NASA, and penning important industry partnerships, most notably with SpaceX. Momentus employs new and proprietary technologies, including water plasma propulsion to enable revolutionary low-cost orbital Shuttle and Charter services. The Charter Service will allow dedicated capacity to be allocated to a single customer’s payload. In the Shuttle Service model, the payload will be a rideshare along with other payloads hosted or deployed from the Vigoride transfer vehicle.
About Pixxel
Pixxel is a space technology startup based out of Bengaluru, India. Founded in 2019 by then 21-year-olds Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal while still in their final year of undergraduate studies, the company is building a constellation of high-throughput earth imaging satellites to provide global imagery at a daily frequency to customers in a wide range of industries worldwide. In 2019, Pixxel was the only Asian participant selected to be a part of the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, a first of its kind space focused accelerator where the company worked with space industry stalwarts such as NASA JPL, US Air Force, Lockheed Martin and Maxar among others. Pixxel plans to deploy a total of 30 satellites by Dec 2022 for its global constellation. Pixxel recently raised a $5M seed round to accelerate its second launch and begin work on the constellation. For more information visit www.pixxel.space
About Momentus
As a first mover in building in-space transportation and infrastructure technology, Momentus is at the forefront of the commercialization of space. With an experienced team of aerospace, propulsion, and robotics engineers, Momentus has developed a cost-effective and energy efficient in-space transport system based on plasma water propulsion technology. Momentus has in-place service agreements with private satellite companies, government agencies, and research organizations, and its first Vigoride™ transport system launch is scheduled for December 2020.
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