KaleidEO Successfully Completes Aerial Testing of its High Performance Optical & Multi-Spectral EO Payload

Bengaluru, April 18, 24 – KaleidEO Space Systems, a startup based out of Bengaluru and subsidiary company of SatSure Analytics India Pvt Ltd, announced the successful aerial testing of its high-performance optical and multi-spectral earth observation payload. This milestone makes KaleidEO one of the first private Indian companies to design & develop a high resolution optical EO payload. The successful prototype test, conducted aboard an aircraft over the UK and Austria (in collaboration with the Global Assistant & Logistic Group), was aimed to assess the functionality and stability of the payload in the real world environment. This milestone makes KaleidEO and SatSure combined, a full stack earth observation company, the likes of which are very few globally.

While the prototype payload was flown with image scanning abilities in 5-bands (red, blue, green, near infrared, red-edge) and captured images at 16 centimeters spatial resolution, the satellite version of this payload shall be capturing images globally at 1 meter resolution and 65 kilometer swath, which will be disruptive due to the scale and quality of such data collection for developing applications in agriculture, urban planning, critical infrastructure assets monitoring and for strategic planning needs of the Government. KaleidEO's payload employs motion compensation and pixel shift methodology for super-resolving captured images, similar to the technique popularized by smartphones, in KaleidEO’s case applied to imaging moving objects at speeds of 7 km/s from orbit.

Speaking on the milestone Akash Yalgach, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at KaleidEO said, “We are thrilled with the success of this initial test. With this milestone, KaleidEO has become one of the very few companies that is capable of developing EO payloads and imaging technologies. The successful test has given our team the confidence for our 4-satellite fleet mission slated in 2026. We are hoping that our efforts will bolster the Earth imaging capabilities, opening doors for the era of space-based innovation from India.”

 

While earlier, the team was evaluating to test the payload on a satellite demonstrator, they pivoted to high-quality aircraft testing as a more time and cost effective option. With this milestone, KaleidEO is on-track to unveil a full fledged commercial version of the payload, poised for deployment on satellites. This advanced piece of technology will be integrated on a fleet of four satellites orbiting at a very low earth orbit of 380 km. Anticipated to launch in the third quarter of 2026, this initiative will represent a significant step forward for India and its private space sector growth, fueled by the government’s policy pushes.

KaleidEO’s founding team comprises of young ex-ISRO scientists, and was set up by deeptech firm SatSure, which closed a Series A round of $15 million in equity capital last year, led by Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP), India and Promus Ventures. SatSure counts HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ADB Ventures, and Transunion among its strategic investors, and would be an anchor-tenant customer for KaleidEO’s fleet of hi-resolution satellite imagery. Prateep Basu, Founder & CEO of SatSure commented on the feat, “High quality affordable satellite imagery is still a myth, but at KaleidEO we are going to be breaking barriers by democratizing access to such data for users in India and other developing countries through cutting-edge hardware innovation. ”