New Delhi, Sept. 26 -- India's private space sector is moving into a phase where launching a satellite is no longer the only measure of progress. The bigger test is whether homegrown space companies can turn proprietary technology, spacecraft capability and satellite data into sustainable businesses that can compete beyond India.

For GalaxEye, that discussion has become more relevant following the US patent granted for the core technology behind its OptoSAR imaging architecture. The technology synchronises optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors to acquire spatially and temporally matched observations, rather than combining separately captured datasets later.

But a patent alone does not establish an Earth-observation business...