Hyderabad-based TakeMe2Space will launch its MOI-1A satellite aboard a SpaceX Transporter-18 rideshare mission on October 1. The launch is set for Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The satellite weighs under 50 kilograms and carries Nvidia Orin NX processors built for artificial intelligence workloads. It will test whether data from Earth-observation satellites can be processed in orbit instead of being beamed down to ground stations.

Company co-founder Ronak Kumar Samantray said 23 customers have already signed up to use the satellite’s computing power. The payloads include defence, agriculture and climate-monitoring experiments from Indian and overseas clients.

The mission marks a step towards orbital data centres, where heavy computing moves into space to cut delays and downlink costs. TakeMe2Space says a successful flight would pave the way for larger computing satellites in the coming years.

The Transporter rideshare programme regularly carries dozens of small satellites on a single Falcon 9 launch. India’s private space sector has grown fast since the sector opened to private firms, with startups now building launch vehicles and satellites.