Pune-based start-up Astrophel Aerospace is indigenously building rocket propulsion hardware.
The team has developed a cryo-pump and aims to convert it into a turbo pump, the “heart of the engine”.
Their focus on in-house R&D has cut costs drastically, with engines tested for as little as Rs 6 lakh.
The company is exploring reusable rockets and commercialising subcomponents such as valves.
Founders call for stronger government support to help deep-tech firms scale in India.
Astrophel Aerospace, a Pune-based space technology start-up, is among a growing number of Indian companies indigenously building essential propulsion hardware for rocket engines. The company announced in September that it had begun testing its cryo-pump at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facilities. This pump will eventually be converted into a turbo-pump, which, according to the founders, will act as the “heart of the engine”. This milestone comes two years after the company successfully test-fired its engine for the first time without any external funding.
Down To Earth chats with the co-founders, Immanuel Louis and Suyash Bafna, about their business model, why focusing on research and development helps them save costs, their rocket launch plans and how the deep-tech start-up overcame investment hurdles in the initial years.
Rohini Krishnamurthy: You are one of the few companies in India working on hardware. How did this come about?
Immanuel Louis: Astrophel Aerospace unofficially began in 2021. My co-founder, Suyash Bafna, comes from an electronics and communication engineering background, but he was very passionate about aerospace. I have an aerospace background. At the time, Suyash was interested in developing an engine. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he 3D-printed rocket injectors, did the modelling and even tested them at home. That’s how we met and decided to work on this together.
He sent one of the designs to Dr S Somnath, who was then the chairman of ISRO. He replied via email, calling the work impressive. That gave us the motivation to start something together. So Suyash, Taj Baba and I decided to bootstrap and fire a rocket engine.
The whole rocket engine industry requires millions of dollars in funding. Without that kind of money, it was daunting and we thought, why does aerospace need to be this expensive? Why should we import components only to assemble them in India? Why not try to work with existing components — things already available in the market — carry out our own research and development (R&D) and modify them?
By going through this process and doing R&D in-house, we thought we could save a lot of money. We test-fired our engine in 2023 for just Rs 6 lakh, without any external funding. This surprised the industry. People wanted to validate our engine because they didn’t believe us. ISRO tested our product and was impressed. That gave us confidence and led to our first pre-seed round, where we raised around Rs 6.8 crore.
RK: Could you elaborate on how investing in R&D makes things cost-effective?
Suyash Bafna: For us, R&D is about employing techniques that are already established across a wide variety of industries. We are trying to revolutionise aerospace in the way automakers once revolutionised cars.
If you look at auto parts 50-60 years ago, they used to cost a lot, making cars expensive because so much R&D and upfront investment was needed.
The rocket industry is at a very nascent stage. Investment is very high because we are mostly focused on creating new techniques, rather than employing what has already been tested. We are basically trying to bring the automotive industry mindset into aerospace and then scale it.
By R&D, we mean taking components used in other industries and modifying them to make them aerospace-friendly and effective. Certainly, R&D needs financing, but it saves a lot of money in the long term.
IL: To make modifications, we looked at the existing market in India and saw how we could adapt valves and their internal workings. Recently, when Suyash was at ISRO, they were surprised because they had been purchasing valves at five or six times the cost from other countries. ISRO is now interested in collaborating with us and purchasing these valves.
R&D ensures we don’t waste money importing expensive components. Instead, we can work with what already exists in the industry, invest some money to adapt it and make it aerospace-worthy.
RK: India has seen a few space start-ups. How do you differentiate yourself from them?
IL: In Indian space tech, there are broadly two types of companies: Those providing launch vehicle services and those making satellites.
The latter build satellites but rely on external agencies to launch them. In India, ISRO launches satellites into orbit, but we also rely on foreign companies such as SpaceX.
As for launch vehicle companies, many use solid rocket fuel. This is not reusable; once you burn a solid rocket booster, there is no retrieving it. Solid fuel is more reliable because it is tried and tested, but it isn’t good for the environment in the long term.
On the other hand, liquid rocket engines are more controllable. You can regulate the speed of the fuel and oxidiser.
Liquid engines require pumps, which can run in two ways. One uses batteries. It requires a normal electric pump into which you feed fuel and oxidiser. But this demands heavy-density batteries. The problem is that it reduces reusability. And because it is heavy, there is less space for payloads.
The other one is the turbo pump. You can run it off the engine, which works like a gas-generator engine that requires a double pump. Essentially, you take some of the exhaust from the engine and use it to run the pump. It has a gas generator that produces high-pressure gases to drive the turbine.
The turbine then drives the pump, which in turn powers the smaller rockets. It is like a feedback system. It does not need any battery. It is similar to the human heart, which is self-driven and does not require an external device to keep it working. A turbo pump is simpler, more efficient, and saves weight — which means more payload.
It is also a greener option because we can enable the reusable landing of the whole first stage of the vehicle, which makes up 60-70 per cent of the cost. No private organisation in India is currently working on turbo pumps, and globally, fewer than 20-30 private companies have figured out this technology.
SB: Right now, we are focusing on cryo-pumps and we want to convert one into a turbo pump. Our turbo pumps reach around 25,000 revolutions per minute, producing enough horsepower to power the engine.
By building our engines with these pumps, we have many options to explore. We can work on reusability. We can use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, which burn cleanly. The only by-product will be water vapour. We will need more time to fully develop this pump. We are working with ISRO for testing. We recently signed an MoU for testing, validation and knowledge transfer. ISRO has mastered these technologies.
RK: How many times can the rocket be reused?
SB: Conventional rockets have an expendable configuration. Once launched, they burn up in the atmosphere.
According to our estimates, we can reuse our rockets around five to six times. By reusing them, we save costs and double profit margins.
After five or six uses, they would need refurbishment. If you look at the global industry, SpaceX can reuse rockets 15-16 times. We aim to get there and will figure it out along the way.
RK: Are you also hoping to have a launch vehicle ready? Is that in the pipeline?
IL: Currently, we are working on the subcomponents. As astrophysicists, we don’t want to only focus on the launch vehicle, which can take six to seven years of R&D. The whole process could take around 10 to 11 years and after that, you still need to find your market.
After working on this engine and the valves, we feel we can focus on the launch vehicle. While we work on the launch vehicle, we will also develop subcomponents like valves, turbo pumps and other parts, which can easily be commercialised in other industries. For example, valves are used everywhere — companies in the oil sector rely on them. By making these in India, we are already trying to find a market for subcomponents within the first two to three years.
This is a very sustainable and more investor-friendly business model, because it doesn’t rely on getting a huge sum of money first and then validating the technology. Instead, as we build, we validate each individual part. By the time we have a launch vehicle ready, we will already have tested components.
So we already have this market to capture. We believe both will go hand in hand. In a nutshell, within the next year, we plan to complete development of this turbo pump.
Then we will carry out a small proof of concept for a reusable launch vehicle. It will travel around 10 kilometres, after which we will shut off the engine and attempt to make it land again.
In the meantime, we are also focusing strongly on the subcomponent business. If you buy components from other countries, you have to launch at their prices. At any time, sanctions could mean we cannot use those components, which could bring the whole industry to a standstill.
RK: What about India’s space tech ecosystem? Could you talk about the challenges that still persist in the deep-tech sector?
IL: What has worked in our favour is IN-SPACe, which provides handholding support between private companies and ISRO and the Space Policy 2023.
But one big challenge that deep-tech companies face is attracting investment, which typically comes from private players. Even though we get technical support from the government, we need to pay for it. Deep-tech requires a lot of investment and only a few private investors are willing to play the waiting game. It would help if the government introduced schemes to support deep-tech start-ups for 10-12 years.
Deep-tech companies in China and the US were heavily supported by their governments, including financially. However, I believe this will eventually happen in India too, as the government gains more confidence in the sector.
SB: In India, there is more focus on direct-to-consumer brands. But if we want to grow into the world’s third-largest economy, deep-tech companies will play a huge role. We’ve seen such companies thrive in the US and China. I think in the next three to four years, our government might also provide us with that support, so we can develop technology that is essential for strengthening the nation’s security and integrity.