Satellites & Earth observation
TakeMe2Space
Hyderabad startup renting in-orbit AI compute by the minute; its first satellite, MOI-1, was lost in the PSLV-C62 failure of January 2026 and is being reflown on a Falcon 9.
TakeMe2Space sells time on a computer that happens to be in orbit. The Hyderabad company, founded in 2024 by software engineer Ronak Kumar Samantray, puts AI accelerators and radiation-shielded electronics on small satellites and rents them through OrbitLab, a web console where a customer uploads a model, runs it against imagery the satellite has just taken, and gets the answer back instead of the raw pixels. ThePrint reported pricing of $2 to $4 per orbital minute in June 2025, against $15 to $30 per square kilometre for conventional high-resolution imagery; Inc42 put the rate at $2 a minute in January 2026.
The approach flew first as MOI-TD, one of ten non-government payloads on POEM-4, the spent fourth stage of ISRO's PSLV-C60, launched from Sriharikota on 30 December 2024. The Week described the payload as demonstrating an AI lab in space, processing Earth-observation data in real time. TakeMe2Space says the demonstrator ran more than 20 experiments in low Earth orbit, covering on-orbit AI inference, sensor fusion and high-speed data handling, and that it validated RadShield, a high-atomic-number coating meant to cut the radiation dose reaching commercial-grade processors. ISRO de-orbited POEM-4 and it re-entered on 4 April 2025.
The first free-flying satellite did not survive its ride. MOI-1, a 14 kg orbital computing platform carrying an Nvidia GPU, was lost on 12 January 2026 when PSLV-C62 developed a roll-rate deviation near the end of third-stage flight and failed to reach orbit, destroying the mission's primary payload and its other co-passengers as well. MOI-1 was uninsured, as were almost all the private payloads on that flight. ISRO's failure report was submitted on 13 June 2026 and the cause was not made public. A year earlier the satellite had been expected to fly in September 2025 on the SSLV.
Ronak Kumar Samantray told Swarajya that “The loss is not in terms of money, as we now have the capability to rebuild MOI-1 in just 2 months, but in terms of the lost opportunity.” The company said in January 2026 that it was in talks with NSIL about future launches; by May 2026 the replacement, MOI-1a, had moved to SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare, no earlier than October 2026. A $5 million seed round led by Chiratae Ventures, announced four days before the PSLV-C62 launch, is meant to take the fleet to six spacecraft and roughly 5 kW of orbital compute, though ThePrint described the plan in May 2026 as a five-satellite constellation.
What they build and operate
- OrbitLab · Platform · In development
Web console for renting orbital compute: customers upload AI models, run them aboard the satellite against freshly captured imagery and receive processed results rather than raw data. Reported pricing was $2 to $4 per orbital minute in June 2025 and $2 a minute in January 2026.[1][9][11] - MOI-TD · Satellite · Retired
Technology demonstrator hosted on ISRO's POEM-4 platform, which the company says ran more than 20 experiments in low Earth orbit; the host platform re-entered on 4 April 2025.[12][6][7][8] - MOI-1 · Satellite · Retired
14 kg orbital computing platform carrying an Nvidia GPU, intended to rent onboard computing time; lost on 12 January 2026 in the PSLV-C62 launch failure.[4][12] - MOI-1A · Satellite · Announced
Replacement for the lost MOI-1, manifested on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare aboard a Falcon 9, no earlier than October 2026.[2][12] - RadShield · Component · In development
Radiation coating of high-atomic-number materials that the company says reduces total ionising dose effects by about 10 times, letting commercial-grade processors survive years rather than months in low Earth orbit.[14][13]
Funding
- March 2025 · Pre-seed
₹5.5 crore — SeaFund, Blume Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, AC Ventures[10] - 08 January 2026 · Seed (the company's own site calls it Series A)
$5 million (INR 44.9 Cr) — Chiratae Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, SeaFund, Unicorn India Ventures[9][13]
Milestones
- 30 December 2024
MOI-TD, the company's technology demonstrator, flew as one of ten non-government payloads on ISRO's POEM-4 platform, launched from Sriharikota on PSLV-C60.[6][8][12] - 04 March 2025
Raised ₹5.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by SeaFund, with the money earmarked for launching the MOI-1 AI laboratory.[10] - 09 June 2025
ThePrint reported that MOI-1 was due to launch in September 2025 on ISRO's SSLV; the satellite instead flew on PSLV-C62 in January 2026, and was lost.[1][4] - 08 January 2026
Announced a $5 million seed round led by Chiratae Ventures to grow the fleet to six spacecraft and about 5 kW of in-orbit compute, four days before MOI-1's launch.[9] - 12 January 2026
MOI-1 was destroyed when PSLV-C62 failed after a roll-rate deviation near the end of third-stage flight; the satellite was uninsured, as were almost all the private payloads on the flight.[4][5][3] - 08 May 2026
Booked the replacement satellite MOI-1a on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare, no earlier than October 2026, after the ISRO launch failure.[2] - 13 June 2026
The PSLV-C62 failure analysis report was submitted on 13 June 2026, but the cause was not publicly disclosed, leaving the reason for MOI-1's loss unstated.[5]
Leadership
- Ronak Kumar Samantray
Founder and chief executive officer (as of 08 January 2026)[9][4][10] - Anand Rajagopalan
Executive vice-president, business strategy (as of 08 May 2026)[2][3]
Sources
ThePrintA Hyderabad startup is launching India's 1st 'thinking' satellite. A brain in spacetheprint.in
ThePrintHyderabad start-up TakeMe2Space turns to SpaceX after ISRO PSLV mission failuretheprint.in
ThePrintPSLV-C62 failure: What Indian start-ups say about trusting ISRO as a launch partnertheprint.in
SwarajyaPSLV-C62 Failure Deals Heavy Blow To Space Start-ups And Ambitious In-Orbit Innovationsswarajyamag.com
WikipediaPSLV-C62en.wikipedia.org
ISROPOEM-4 in PSLV-C60 / SpaDeX Missionisro.gov.in
ISROAtmospheric Re-entry of POEM-4isro.gov.in
The WeekPSLV-C60 POEM-4: Pioneering space research with cutting-edge payloads from ISRO, startups, and universitiestheweek.in
Inc42TakeMe2Space Raises $5 Mn To Expand Its Satellite Constellationinc42.com
MediaBriefSpaceTech startup TakeMe2Space raises ₹5.5 crore to launch AI lab in spacemediabrief.com
Analytics India MagazineThis Hyderabad Startup is Building India's First AI Lab in Orbitanalyticsindiamag.com
TakeMe2SpaceMissionstm2.space
TakeMe2SpaceTakeMe2Space - Building orbital data centerstm2.space
TakeMe2SpaceTechnology | The LEO satellite infrastructuretm2.space
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