TakeMe2Space Secures IN-SPACe Technology Adoption Fund Backing to Build StarSense, India's First AI-Powered Star Tracker

TakeMe2Space (TM2Space), the deeptech company building India’s first orbital data center infrastructure, today announced that it has secured approval and backing under the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre’s (IN-SPACe) Technology Adoption Fund (TAF) for the development of StarSense, an indigenous, AI-powered star tracker. Having already space-qualified its technology across two orbital missions in 2024, the company is now turning its attention to one of the most critical subsystems still imported into India.

Star trackers are the high-precision sensors that let a satellite know exactly where it is pointing, with the single-digit arcsecond accuracy that advanced imaging and communications missions depend on. Today, Indian satellite manufacturers import them almost entirely from the United States and Europe. StarSense is designed to change that, marking a decisive step toward self-reliance in flight-proven, critical space hardware in line with the Government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.

The project follows a structured 24-month development timeline that will take the system from its current laboratory testing phase to a fully qualified, space-ready flight model.

A Market That Needs Hundreds of Units

With India projected to launch approximately 150 satellites over the next three years, and commercial missions typically requiring dual-tracker setups for redundancy, the domestic market alone needs at least 300 star trackers in the immediate future.

By replacing imported subsystems with a locally developed alternative, Indian satellite builders, including startups, academia, and defence entities, can bypass restrictive foreign export controls, remove supply chain vulnerabilities, and significantly accelerate mission timelines. A space-proven, globally competitive subsystem also opens substantial export opportunities, positioning India as a trusted global hub for space technology.

“India is on the cusp of a satellite boom, but a critical part of every spacecraft still arrives on a boat or a plane from abroad, often with strings attached. With StarSense, we want every Indian satellite builder, from a college team to a defence program, to be able to point their spacecraft with world-class accuracy using hardware made here at home. IN-SPACe’s backing through the Technology Adoption Fund is a strong vote of confidence in that mission,” said Ronak Kumar Samantray, Founder & CEO, TakeMe2Space.

What Makes StarSense Different

TM2Space is developing two variants for the modern NewSpace landscape. StarSense Lite is optimised for size, weight, power, and affordability, aimed at the fast-growing CubeSat market and academic programs. StarSense Pro is a high-performance, ultra-precise variant for satellites larger than 50 kg that demand stringent pointing knowledge.

What sets the platform apart is its use of artificial intelligence. Unlike legacy star trackers that rely on basic geometric algorithms, StarSense uses an embedded AI accelerator to deliver far higher accuracy and stay reliable in the noisiest conditions of orbit, from cosmic-ray interference to crowded star fields. Advanced shielding protects its sensor and electronics from the harsh radiation environment of space.

A Building Block for a 1 GW Orbital Data Center

Beyond meeting immediate domestic demand, StarSense is a critical step in TakeMe2Space’s larger mission of building a 1 gigawatt Orbital Data Center (ODC), a planned constellation of 20,000 high-performance compute satellites. Building infrastructure at that scale sustainably requires owning the critical hardware, and developing sovereign star tracker capability today helps secure that supply chain for tomorrow.

“Owning the full hardware stack is not a luxury for what we are trying to build in orbit; it is a necessity. Every sovereign subsystem we develop today brings the vision of a large-scale orbital data center, built and controlled in India, that much closer,” added Ronak.

Image Source: TakeMe2Space