Sai Divya Kurapati’s joy knew no bounds when she witnessed Vikram-S, India’s first privately-developed rocket, successfully launched into space. She was the mastermind behind one of its payloads – the CubeSat LakshyaSAT II. She designed and developed the payload.
Divya, who hails from Tenali, is a research scholar in Satellite Communications. Space and satellites have been her dream since childhood. She started her own startup N-SpaceTech to make small satellites affordable. She believes that being affordable would help in bringing space technology to the masses.
CubeSat LakshyaSAT I was launched in March 2022 from the UK. This inspired Sai Divya to explore further. It was then she received the opportunity to be part of Vikram-S. Sai Divya and her business partner Raghuram Kothamas spent seven months building LakshyaSAT II. The current payload has seven sensors. It can measure temperature, pressure, humidity, and other parameters. It can collect flight data even in extreme conditions. Her next target is to work on the next version of LakshyaSAT. It will be launched into low earth orbit via Vikram I.
