# Firefly constellation by Pixxel Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/spaceflight/fireflies Frontier: [Spaceflight](https://technooptimist.io/spaceflight.md) · Field: Earth observation · Company: [Pixxel](https://technooptimist.io/companies/pixxel.md) Stage: Deploy (4 of 5: Research → Proto → Pilot → Deploy → Scaling) Updated: last update 2026-09-08, facts checked 2026-10-11 Goal: Spot crop disease, pollution, minerals and changes in land and water that ordinary cameras miss, by reading the chemical colour fingerprint of every 5 m patch of ground every few days. Status: Six Fireflies operating since Aug 2025; 3–6 more planned, Honeybees from 2027. Next milestone: Launch 3–6 more Firefly satellites ## Milestones | Status | Milestone | Date | Slip | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Done | First three Fireflies launched on Transporter-12 | 14 Jan 2025 | | | Done | Three more launched on SpaceX's NAOS mission | 27 Aug 2025 | | | Done | Leads consortium for India's first private EO constellation | Jan 2026 | | | Done | $100M Series C to fund Honeybees and US production | Sep 2026 | | | Current | Launch 3–6 more Firefly satellites | | | | Planned | First Honeybee launch, adding shortwave infrared | 2027 | | | Planned | 12 Honeybee satellites in orbit | 2029 | | ## Upcoming events - **2027**: First Honeybee launch, adding shortwave infrared - **2029**: 12 Honeybee satellites in orbit ## Most important updates - **8 Sep 2026**: Pixxel raises $100M Series C led by Temasek and Seraphim to build Honeybee satellites. Pixxel raised $100 million, taking its total to $195 million since its 2019 founding. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-raises-100m-series-c-led-by-temasek-and-seraphim-to-build-f1732cc3.md) · [original source](https://payloadspace.com/pixxel-raises-100m-series-c-to-fund-next-gen-sats/)) - **27 Aug 2025**: Pixxel launches three more Fireflies, completing a six-satellite hyperspectral fleet. Three more Firefly satellites flew on SpaceX's NAOS mission, bringing Pixxel's operational fleet to six. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-launches-three-more-fireflies-completing-a-six-satellite-7c3ce493.md) · [original source](https://pixxel.space/news/pixxel-launches-three-more-fireflies-with-spacex-paving-the-way-for-planetary-scale-hyperspectral-imaging)) - **14 Jan 2025**: Pixxel launches its first three Firefly hyperspectral satellites on SpaceX Transporter-12. Bengaluru-based Pixxel launched its first three commercial Fireflies from Vandenberg, calling them the world's highest-resolution hyperspectral constellation and India's first private commercial constellation. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-launches-its-first-three-firefly-hyperspectral-satellites-on-01f72a06.md) · [original source](https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/14/google-backed-pixxel-launches-indias-first-private-satellite-constellation)) ## Current obstacles - **Revisit too slow for some uses**: With six satellites, a spot near the equator is seen less than once a week; daily coverage needs more satellites. - **Mostly government customers**: Most users today are governments; building a broad commercial market for hyperspectral data is still under way. ## Physics limits - **More colours, less light per colour**: Splitting light into 100+ bands leaves few photons in each, so pixels must be larger or exposures longer than in a normal camera; that is why hyperspectral pixels are metres, not centimetres. - **The air gets in the way**: Water vapour and gases absorb some colours on the way down and up, so readings must be corrected for the atmosphere, and some bands are unusable. ## How it works ### Spectral fingerprints: Every material has its own colours Healthy and stressed leaves, minerals and polluted water reflect light in slightly different ways across many colours, invisible to an ordinary camera. ### Prism in orbit: Splitting each pixel's light The camera spreads each 5 m patch's light into about 135 narrow bands from blue to near-infrared, making a stack of images per scene. ### Pick the bands: Sending down what matters Up to about 45 bands are chosen per capture, cutting the data that must be radioed down while keeping the useful colours. ### Next: SWIR: Honeybees see further into infrared Shortwave infrared (to 2,500 nm) holds strong signatures of minerals, water and many gases; the Honeybee satellites add it from 2027. ## Spec sheet | Spec | Firefly constellation | Provenance | | --- | --- | --- | | Fireflies in orbit | 6 | reported | | Spectral bands | About 135 (about 45 per capture) | reported | | Spectral range | About 470–900 nm | reported | | Ground resolution | About 5 m | reported | | Swath width | About 38–40 km | reported | | Orbit | 589 km, sun-synchronous | reported | | Design life | Up to 7 years | reported | | Honeybee range (planned) | 470–2,500 nm, about 260 bands | reported | Provenance: reported = stated by the company; estimated = our estimate; sample = a sample figure. ## About Pixxel Indian-American company that builds and runs hyperspectral imaging satellites, which split light into well over 100 colours to identify crops, minerals and pollution from orbit. Offices in Bengaluru and the US. - Runs six Firefly hyperspectral satellites (2025), each seeing 135+ colour bands at about 5 m. - Raised a $100M Series C in Sept 2026 (Temasek, Seraphim), $195M in total since 2019. - Next: Honeybee satellites adding shortwave infrared from 2027; leads India's private EO constellation consortium. - Founded: 2019 - Headquarters: IN, US - Status: private - Raised: $100M - Last round: Series C $100M, Sep 2026, led by Temasek, Seraphim Space - Website: https://pixxel.space - People: Awais Ahmed (Co-founder and CEO); Kshitij Khandelwal (Co-founder and CTO) - Partners, customers, investors: National Reconnaissance Office (customer); NASA (customer); Government of India (customer); Google (investor); Temasek (investor); SpaceX (supplier) Company page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/pixxel.md ## Related programs Everything in Spaceflight: https://technooptimist.io/spaceflight.md --- The Techno Optimist tracks every frontier of technology, program by program: https://technooptimist.io/ (a Markdown version of any page: add .md to its URL; site map for agents: https://technooptimist.io/llms.txt). 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