NEW DELHI: Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and NASDAQ-listed Satellogic Inc have signed a strategic contract to build low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in India, the companies said on Wednesday, adding that TASL will commission a satellite plant in Karnataka.

TASL would establish an Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) facility for satellites in India and co-develop a satellite design with Satellogic, a leader in sub-metre resolution earth observation (EO) data collection, a release said.

The TASL satellite AIT plant will be built at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka, and its main focus will be on manufacturing satellites and developing imagery in India for national defence and commercial applications, it added.

TASL and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design, which will integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite helping generate a diverse range of data, it said.

The project will start with comprehensive training, knowledge transfer, and local assembly of optical sub-metre resolution EO satellites, the first of which is planned to be launched as TSAT-1A, the statement said.

TASL CEO and MD Sukaran Singh the company would work with local SMEs for payloads and other technologies.