Somewhere in Andhra Pradesh, a rocket engine is being set on fire.
On purpose.
Again and again.
No, this isn't Isro.
It's a two-year-old startup.
And what they're testing might be the boldest bet in Indian space right now.
India has 55 operational satellites in orbit.
The US has over 13,000.
China is closing in on 1,500.
Those satellites aren't decoration.
They run banking. Track cyclones. Guide ships. Keep militaries connected.
And satellites die. Every 5 years, roughly.
So to hit even 500 satellites by 2035, India needs to launch ~1,000 tonnes of payload a year.
Launch is the choke point. Everything else waits behind it.
Founded in 2024 by ex-Isro scientist Devakumar Thammisetty and CoinDCX co-founder-turned-rocket-builder Neeraj Khandelwal, Astrobase is building a full-flow staged combustion engine.
Engineers call it the holy grail of propulsion.
Here's why it's rare 👇
Astrobase's version runs on liquid oxygen and methane — clean-burning, low-soot, built for an engine designed to fly 50+ times.
800 kilonewtons of thrust. Enough to lift ~80 tonnes. Every core part 3D printed. Built entirely in India.
IN-SPACe evaluated 47 applicants for its new Technology Adoption Fund.
Only 3 made the cut.
Astrobase was one of them — walking away with ₹25 crore, the maximum allowed per project.
Their Andhra Pradesh test stand can handle 2,000 kN of thrust. A sub-scale version of the engine nailed its very first hot fire back in September 2025.
🛸 2027: booster hop test — lift off, land vertically
🔥 2028: full static fire on the pad
🌌 2028: India's first orbital launch from a private methane engine
Khandelwal isn't shy about the stakes. He wants five to seven world-class technologies built in India, in his lifetime.
This rocket engine, still roaring on a test stand in Andhra Pradesh, is meant to be proof number one.
That's all for now!
