EO·Atlas
Dragonfly Aerospace
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South African manufacturer of high-performance electro-optical imaging payloads, satellite buses, and complete small satellites for Earth observation constellations. Vertically integrated: designs and builds CubeSat imagers, microsat cameras, SAR payloads, satellite buses, and integrated satellite platforms. Operates EOSSAT-1 (AgriSat-1) in partnership with EOS Data Analytics. Majority-owned by Noosphere Ventures (Dr. Max Polyakov) since April 2021.
Dragonfly Aerospace is a South African manufacturer of electro-optical imaging payloads, satellite buses, and complete small satellites, founded in 2020 in Stellenbosch and operating a 3,000 m2 facility with a 1,000 m2 cleanroom at Technopark Stellenbosch. The company traces its engineering heritage to the South African microsatellite programme spanning 25 years and three prior missions. In April 2021, Dr. Max Polyakov's Noosphere Ventures acquired a majority stake, connecting Dragonfly to a broader ecosystem that includes EOS Data Analytics.[1][2]
The product portfolio spans the full imaging chain. Optical imagers range from the Gecko (39 m GSD) and Mantis (16 m PAN) at the small end, through the Chameleon (10 m PAN, with a SWIR variant), Caiman (3.25 m PAN), and Komodo (1.5 m PAN), to the DragonEye (1.4 m PAN) and Raptor (0.5 m PAN native) at higher resolution. The SAR-C payload is a C-band synthetic aperture radar. Satellite buses include the uDragonfly (100 kg class), a standard Dragonfly Bus, and the etaDragonfly nano-class platform. Complete satellite platforms extend to the Dragonfly-C, a SAR satellite; company materials describe it as a 350 kg class vehicle, while a component database lists a 163 kg figure (the two figures have not been reconciled from publicly available sources).[3] Standalone components (power systems, transmitters, on-board computers, and reaction wheels) round out the offering.
The most prominent operational mission is EOSSAT-1 (also designated ZA-008 / AgriSat-1), launched on Falcon 9 Transporter-6 in January 2023 into a 540 km sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite uses the uDragonfly bus and two DragonEye cameras, each delivering 1.4 m PAN / 2.8 m multispectral resolution across a 22.2 km swath in 11 spectral bands, operated in partnership with EOS Data Analytics for agricultural monitoring.[4] Additional customers include Loft Orbital (Gecko imager on YAM-3), NanoAvionics, and Pixxel. The company claims 40 or more payloads on orbit; this figure is drawn from company marketing materials and has not been enumerated in third-party mission records.[5][6]
Dragonfly is targeting production throughput of 48 satellites per year with 16 in parallel.
Manufactures
- Gecko ImagerVNIR
400-700 nm / 3 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Mantis ImagerVNIR
450-900 nm / 96 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Chameleon ImagerVNIR
450-900 nm / 96 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Caiman ImagerVNIR
400-900 nm / 11 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Komodo ImagerVNIR
400-900 nm / 11 bands / In development
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator -
1000-1750 nm / 4 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - DragonEye ImagerVNIR
400-900 nm / 11 bands / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Raptor ImagerVNIR
400-900 nm / 8 bands / In development
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
All products (23)
- SAR-CSAR
C-band / 32 km swath / In development
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator -
Mini / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator -
Mini / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator -
Micro / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - KomodoSatBus
Micro / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - RaptorSatBus
Mini / Operational
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - Dragonfly-CBus
Mini / In development
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator - HDRTx-1.5BusOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- HDRTx-3BusOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- SSMMBusOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- RW-1NmsBusOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- EPS-LP-1k5Power / EPSOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- 28-300-BATTERY MODULEPower / EPSOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- OBCOBC / C&DHOperator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- EOSSAT Datadata platform
Ground
Operator pricingPricing not publicly listed by operator
- [1]Dr. Max Polyakov Purchases Majority Stake in Dragonfly Aerospace - PR Newswireoperator press2026-05-27
- [2]Max Polyakov buys Dragonfly Aerospace - SpaceNewsthird party2026-05-27
- [3]Dragonfly Aerospace Components - SatCatalogcommunity2026-05-27
- [4]EOS SAT-1 (AgriSat-1) - eoPortal Mission Profilecommunity2026-05-27
- [5]Dragonfly Aerospace - LinkedIn Company Profilethird party2026-05-27
- [6]Dragonfly Aerospace keeping the South African space dream alive - defenceWebthird party2026-05-27
- [7]Dragonfly Aerospace Launches New Satellite Products - Space in Africathird party2026-05-27
How to cite this page
Plain text
Dragonfly Aerospace. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/companies/dragonfly (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:companies:dragonfly,
title = {Dragonfly Aerospace},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/companies/dragonfly}
}