Dhruva Space's Thybolt Satellites Deorbit After 15,000 Orbits

Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space announced the successful conclusion of its maiden satellite mission, Thybolt, after the two satellites, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2, completed a combined 15,000 orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) before securely deorbiting.

The Thybolt Mission, launched on November 26, 2022, coinciding with Dhruva Space's 10th anniversary, was part of the ISRO PSLV-C54 launch. 

The Thybolt satellites carried a novel Store-and-Forward payload that received messages from sensor nodes or remote Ground Stations and stored them on-board flash memory for downlinking at a network-connected ground station. The mission also engaged many ham radio operators across India.

Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO of Dhruva Space, expressed pride in the team's hard work and dedication, which contributed to the success of the Thybolt Mission, demonstrating the prowess of their in-house developed P-DoT satellite platform. 

“There is much ahead, including the establishment of our 280,000 sq-ft spacecraft manufacturing facility, and our first hosted payload mission LEAP-1, just around the corner, using our 30kg nanosatellite," said Nekkanti.

He also thanked ISRO, IN-SPACe, and NSIL for their support to New Space players like Dhruva Space, inspiring them to think and dream big.

Dhruva Space is currently working on its first hosted payload mission, LEAP-1, slated to launch via ISRO later this year using the company's P-30 nanosatellite platform, which was space-qualified via ISRO's PSLV C58 POEM-3 on January 1, 2024, through Dhruva Space's LEAP-TD mission.

In 2022, the company became one of the first private companies in India to receive authorisation for space activity from the regulatory authority IN-SPACe.