France’s Sodern, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, will partner with India’s Dhruva Space for an in-orbit demo of Sodern’s HORUS star tracker next year.
The collaboration is a major win for the private Indian smallsat manufacturer looking to expand its global reach—and it also further strengthens Indo-French space ties.
Sodern is using the demo to gain full telemetry access and validate the star tracker’s in-orbit performance. The company will test HORUS’s angular rate capabilities, which provide a key advantage over competing systems, according to Fabien Robert, Sodern’s VP of business development and sales.
“We want to push our [star tracker] to the limits in acquisition and tracking mode,” Robert told Payload. “This kind of test is not possible with high end commercial satellites.”
Taking the LEAP: The demo is part of Dhruva’s Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads, or LEAP, initiative—which offers other companies hosted payload missions onboard its P-30 nanosatellite platform. The demo is also known as LEAP-2.
Dhruva Space CEO Sanjay Nekkanti described the program as a “strategic enabler” designed to tackle persistent industry challenges—limited infrastructure, high costs, and scarce flight opportunities—that prevent companies and research institutions from quickly and affordably validating their tech in orbit.
“The delay in achieving flight heritage not only hinders product development cycles, but also slows down market entry and investment momentum,” Nekkanti said. “We take care of satellite integration, launch, operations and data delivery—essentially reducing the cost, lead time and risk.”
What’s next: Dhruva Space will keep busy before it launches the mission with Sodern in 2026. This year, the company is expected to work on two missions:
- LEAP-1, which will host hyperspectral imaging payloads Espresso and Nexus-01 from Australia’s Akula Tech.
- LEAP-3, which will host a green propulsion system from Mumbai-based Manastu Space.
