PRECISE PROPULSION: A bow thruster manufactured by Agnihotri Aerospace
In 2022, Mahabaleshwar Bhat was still in the third year of his engineering course at the Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management in Mangaluru, when he co-founded the company Agnihotri Aerospace.
What started as a university project for the electronics and communications engineering student to improve the response control systems in rockets – used to control the spacecraft’s orientation in space, make minor speed corrections, and so on – has since grown into a startup focused on building reusable rockets and propulsion systems.
Behind him was an unlikely co-founder: his father, Raghupati Bhat, who is a farmer. Raghupati had always wanted to start a business, so he happily agreed to provide the seed money for his son’s venture.
Reusable rockets are gaining fame worldwide as the future of space travel. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already validated the concept with its Falcon 9 launches, while NASA, Blue Origin and ISRO are developing their reusable systems at home. Bhat wanted to nurture that ambition closer to home.
Find a hole
Incubated at Deshpande Startups in Hubballi and supported by the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) program, Agnihotri Aerospace has developed solutions for one of the toughest challenges of missiles: precision control during reentry. The innovation, a fuel flow control unit, reduces engine weight and provides finer thrust variation.
“For reusable rockets, the ability to land safely depends on precise thrust adjustments. Even small variations can cause disaster. That’s the gap we set out to solve,” says Bhat.
“All our systems are modular, designed for plug-and-play integration to ensure efficiency, simpler design and easier operation,” he adds. “We are aiming for approximately 30 percent more steerability in the thruster, which can also be adapted for satellites to provide greater maneuverability and extend their service life. This in turn increases the overall payload.”
The company has tested prototypes internally and is working on an orbital rocket launch by 2030 and the deployment of satellites in lower atmospheric orbits.
But you can’t wait until then to make money. “Our revenue will come from smaller aerospace components and subsystems,” says Bhat.
These include propulsion subsystems such as power valves, injectors, thrusters and CubeSats, as well as electronic and control systems such as guidance units, electronic boards and control panels. Because they are modular, these technologies can be used in pseudo-satellites, sounding rockets and even defense applications, he says.
Future launches
Bhat says he draws inspiration from Indian agencies ISRO and DRDO, which proved the country can achieve world-class milestones in space travel, as well as SpaceX, which showed how small teams can disrupt global aerospace.
“That combination gave me confidence that we could try something bold from India,” he says.
Agnihotri Aerospace plans to set up its first manufacturing facility for tanks, thrusters and avionics by 2026-2027. By 2028, it plans a larger setup that can assemble complete rocket stages. For now, the startup will rely on IN-SPACe and ISRO facilities for testing; by 2029, it plans to build its own launch pad for 2030 orbital launch.
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Published on October 27, 2025
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