Overview
- Agnikul Cosmos, which ran the test Wednesday at its in-house Chennai site, fired a metre-long booster built as one 3D-printed Inconel piece.
- The engine uses electric motor-driven pumps instead of hot-gas turbo-pumps, which lets software vary pump speed to control thrust with simpler hardware to refurbish.
- Agnikul says the design can be printed in about seven days, cutting typical engine build times by roughly 90% to 97% and supporting plans for multiple launches per quarter.
- The company pitches an end-to-end service for small satellites that offers firm launch windows, custom orbits, and payload changes up to 30 days before flight, which matters for defence and disaster-response missions on tight timelines.
- Recent funding and infrastructure back the push, with a valuation above $500 million, a Rs 25 crore TIDCO equity stake, patents in the US, Europe and India, and a large-format factory after clustered engine tests last month and a 2024 private-pad flight.