Kautilya

The ambitions emerged from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with founders and chief executives of 20 Indian space startups. The meeting took place on August 21, 2026, while a detailed transcript of the interaction was released on August 23 as India marked National Space Day. Participating companies included Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos, Pixxel, Dhruva Space, Bellatrix Aerospace, Digantara, Manastu Space, OrbitAID Aerospace and several other emerging space companies.

The engine delivered a reported 5 kN of thrust and a total impulse of 100 kN·s during the successful test. Othisis says it designed and built the propulsion system for its reusable launch-vehicle programme and plans to place the engine aboard a vehicle demonstrator later in 2026. The achievement remains a ground-based hot-fire test rather than a flight demonstration, but it moves the startup closer to testing reusable rocket operations.

From reusable propulsion and additive manufacturing to a 700,000-square-foot test complex, Ethereal Exploration Guild is attempting one of the hardest problems in commercial spaceflight: making a medium-lift orbital rocket whose booster and upper stage can both return for another mission.