Dragonfly Aerospace

Dragonfly Aerospace, a South African company, specializes in high-performance imaging satellites, payloads, and advanced cameras for CubeSats and microsatellites. Its Earth observation satellite, AgriSAT-1/ZA 008, was South Africa's first commercial satellite. The EOS SAT-1, launched in January 2023 on SpaceX's Transporter-6 mission, was the first of a seven-satellite constellation for EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA) focused on agricultural monitoring. The remaining six satellites were planned for deployment within three years from 2023 to 2025.

Dragonfly's satellites include KomodoSat, a multispectral imaging satellite for Earth observation; RaptorSat for maritime awareness, disaster management, and urban planning; and Dragonfly-C, featuring onboard SAR image processing and real-time object tracking. Its cameras, Gecko, Mantis, and Dragoneye, support high-resolution imaging for CubeSat and small-satellite platforms, enabling applications in agriculture, emergency response, and environmental monitoring. Dragonfly's Raptor camera achieves sub-meter resolution for advanced Earth observation.

The company offers satellite buses, including the µDragonfly Bus for 100-kg-class payloads, the Dragonfly Bus for 150-kg-class SAR missions, and the ηDragonfly Bus for nano-class missions, supporting reliable and flexible Earth observation. In August 2024, Dragonfly introduced Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and ITAR-free components with Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL 9), underscoring its micro-satellite and spacecraft development progress.

Key customers and partnerships

As of December 2024, Dragonfly Aerospace’s customers included the Australian Government's Office of National Intelligence (ONI), EOSDA, Loft Orbital, and Indian startup Pixxel. In November 2021, Dragonfly’s Gecko imager was used in NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission aboard the LICIACube satellite, demonstrating technology for asteroid impact deflection. In February 2022, Dragonfly partnered with Spire Global to develop a satellite for ONI under the National Intelligence Community Satellite (NICSAT) program.

In January 2023, the company launched EOS SAT-1 with SpaceX, a milestone for its EOSDA-backed agricultural satellite constellation. Other partnerships spanned organizations such as Elecnor Deimos, Neuraspace, NanoAvionics, Space JLTZ, the Polytechnical University of Atlacomulco, and CubeCom, reflecting Dragonfly’s diverse collaborations as of December 2024.