How Astrobase Is Building The Base For Tomorrow’s Medium-Lift Rockets

In June 2026, three spacetech startups became the first cohort to receive funds selected under the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre’s (IN-SPACe) Technology Adoption Fund’s (TAF) ₹500 Cr scheme. Bengaluru-based Astrobase Technologies was selected along with SatSure Analytics and TakeMe2Space, and got the backing despite being just two years old at the time. 

For Neeraj Khandelwal and Devakumar Thammisetty, founders of Astrobase, this milestone was a vindication of their passion for space tech. Classmates at IIT Bombay, the duo’s career paths diverged soon after graduation, before converging for Astrobase.  

Thammisetty spent 13 years at ISRO, where he worked on cryogenic engines. He also contributed significantly to CE-20, India’s only cryogenic engine. 

On the other hand, Khandelwal took the entrepreneurship route, and cofounded cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX in 2018. 

Khandelwal told Inc42 he had actually considered entering the space sector when he started CoinDCX in 2018. However, private companies did not have the same opening into the sector at the time. 

To be sure, the ‘space’ for the private sector opened up in 2020 and private companies were able to access the facilities and services of ISRO, via the establishment of IN-SPACe, which acts as a single-window regulator-facilitator.

This is when Khandelwal decided to return to the idea. 

He said his motivation is rooted in what he sees as a gap in India’s space infrastructure. While ISRO has built significant technological capabilities, he believes the next phase requires private companies to build manufacturing, scaling and operational capabilities around space infrastructure.

For Astrobase, that opportunity begins with launch vehicles and, more specifically, propulsion.

The startup is currently developing a launch vehicle, with its immediate focus on building the propulsion system that will power it. In August, Astrobase unveiled its first full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) engine called Everest. 

An FFSC (Full-Flow Staged Combustion) engine is an advanced type of liquid rocket engine where 100% of both the fuel and the oxidiser pass through separate pre-burners before entering the main combustion chamber. This is different from conventional engines, where only a fraction of the fuel or oxidiser passes through a pre-burner to drive pumps; the rest bypasses it or gets dumped/wasted. This makes FFSC engines more efficient and ideal for reuse.

With this achievement, India joined the United States, Russia and China as the fourth country to develop and build an FFSC engine.

The startup’s ambition, however, goes beyond building an engine or even a launch vehicle. Khandelwal wants India to develop the capacity to send 1,000 tons of payload into space every year by 2035.

Building The Propulsion Stack

At the heart of Astrobase’s approach is propulsion, which Khandelwal described as the core technology in a launch vehicle. The Everest rocket engine is an 80-tonne-class, 800 kN engine designed and manufactured in Bengaluru. 

Khandelwal said developing the engine has involved around 20 to 30 design iterations on average. Some individual components have gone through more than 50 iterations, reflecting the complexity of developing an engine comprising hundreds of components. The company is positioning EVEREST as a key building block for an indigenous, reusable launch system.

The programme is now progressing through subsystem testing, including powerhead testing, as Astrobase prepares for full-scale engine hot-fire testing.

Another important part of Astrobase’s propulsion strategy is its use of methane as rocket fuel.

The company has built what Khandelwal described as “India’s first methane-based engine test facility”. The facility is designed around liquefied oxygen and liquefied methane, with methane being positioned as a next-generation rocket fuel.

Khandelwal pointed to several advantages of methane. Apart from being easier to operate and widely available, he said it can extend the usable life of an engine because it does not damage the engine internally to the same extent as some other fuels.

According to him, a kerosene-powered engine can typically be used around 10-12 times, while methane engines can potentially be used more than 50 times.

For Astrobase, the methane capability is therefore not simply about environmental considerations. The company sees it as an important part of developing reusable propulsion technology.

The company’s methane test facility is located at its Ananthapur facility, which spans 22.5 acres and has received Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) approval, according to Khandelwal.

Its Bengaluru manufacturing facility spans around 44,000 square feet and is designed to produce complete rocket engines end-to-end.

The company has also focused on keeping much of the development process in-house.

“You cannot develop such frontier technologies if you are dependent on vendors,” Khandelwal said, explaining that rapid iterations require the entire development loop to be controlled internally.

That does not mean Astrobase operates without suppliers. The company works with more than 100 vendors in India, particularly for raw materials and components that it does not manufacture itself. However, the engine is designed and manufactured in-house.

While the engine remains the immediate focus, Astrobase is also developing a launch vehicle.

Khandelwal said the company is targeting its first orbital flight by the end of 2028. The company expects to have a larger vehicle team in place as it moves towards that milestone.

Astrobase currently has around 70 people, but Khandelwal expects the team to reach around 300 by the time of the first launch.

The company is hiring across aerospace, civil, mechanical, computer and metallurgy engineering, along with scientists and technicians.

The choice of Bengaluru as the company’s base is also closely tied to its talent strategy. Rather than moving its core operations closer to a launch site, Astrobase plans to build the vehicle in Bengaluru and transport it to the launch site.

Khandelwal said access to talent was a major reason for this approach, particularly because building rockets requires highly experienced engineers and scientists.

Targeting The Medium-Lift Gap

Astrobase is developing a medium-lift launch vehicle, which Khandelwal sees as a gap in the current Indian market. To be sure, a medium-lift launch vehicle (MLV) is a rocket launch vehicle that is capable of lifting between 2,000 to 20,000 kg of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). 

An MLV is between small-lift launch vehicles and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Companies like Skyroot Aerospace (the Hyderabad based startup which conducted the first successful orbital launch by a private company) and Agnikul operate in the small-lift launch vehicles space.

The medium-heavy lift launch vehicle market has been growing steadily in recent years. According to the Business Research Company, the market is expected to grow from $10.39 Bn in 2025 to $11.29 Bn in 2026, at a CAGR of 8.6%. 

The growth is being driven by rising demand for payload delivery to low Earth orbit (LEO), expanding government and commercial space programmes, advances in rocket and ground-support technologies, and greater investments in reliable launch systems for scientific and defence missions.

Besides Astrobase, Bengaluru-based EtherealX is another Indian startup working towards a medium lift vehicle; globally, Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a popular example in this category.

From a technology perspective, Khandelwal said moving from a small-lift vehicle to a medium-lift vehicle is not a straightforward extension. A larger vehicle requires new infrastructure, new ground infrastructure, and a larger propulsion system.

The company is therefore building its propulsion capabilities first, before scaling up its vehicle development.

Astrobase also sees the opportunity as global rather than limited to India. Khandelwal pointed to countries including South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan that are developing or relying increasingly on satellite infrastructure, while many of them do not have independent launch capabilities.

This creates an opportunity for launch providers outside the US and China, according to Khandelwal.

Astrobase has already partnered with Italian company Impulso for launches. Impulso aggregates satellites and acts as a logistics partner for satellite companies. The partnership is intended to help build India as a launch destination for satellite companies in Europe and other markets.

The Ambition Beyond Propulsion

For Khandelwal, however, the ultimate objective is much larger than Astrobase’s first orbital flight. With money finally flowing into the India spacetech sector, startups can plan big if they have the right foundation. 

According to Inc42’s data, homegrown spacetech startups have already raised $252.9 Mn so far this year, nearly double what the sector raised in 2025.  

The Astrobase cofounder believes India needs the capacity to send at least 1,000 tons of payload into space annually to build meaningful orbital infrastructure capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of satellites. 

As for Astrobase, the next course of action is to manufacture 50 Everest engines annually; this will set pace for its ambition of enabling approximately 100 tons of launch capacity per annum in Phase 1 before expansion.

For now, the company is focused on the first step: completing and testing its propulsion system, scaling engine manufacturing and developing its launch vehicle. The company currently has one engine production line and plans to establish five to seven lines, with each line eventually capable of producing five to 10 engines a year.

The first orbital flight is targeted for 2028. By then, Astrobase expects to have a much larger team, a functioning vehicle programme and a propulsion system that has moved from the test facility towards flight.

Khandelwal sees this as the infrastructure that Astrobase is building to be instrumental to support India needs before it can build a much larger space economy.

The company is reportedly in talks to raise $40-50 Mn at a valuation of $250-300 Mn, which Khandelwal declined to comment on, but it would be exactly the kind of round needed to operationalise the infrastructure that Khandelwal spoke of. 

[Edited by Nikhil Subramaniam]

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