New Delhi: The State Investment Promotion Board (SIPM) of the Andhra Pradesh Government has approved a proposal of allotment of 149 acres of land to Bengaluru-based new space startup EtherealX for establishing a rocket facility in the Space City at Routhasuramala in the Tirupati district. EtherealX is developing the Razor Crest, the first reusable medium launcher in the world. The land is for establishing a facility for end-to-end development of launch vehicle stages, engine manufacturing and qualification, cluster configuration testing, stage refurbishment, inventory management, assembly, integration and testing of booster and upper stages, validating the flight software, and full-stage testing and qualification.
At the facility, EtherealX will be testing and qualifying the 1,200 kN booster stage engine, which is a semicryogenic rocket engine, cluster configuration testing and qualification of booth the booster stage and the upper stage engines of the rocket, as well as testing and qualification of the booster stage and the upper stages of the launch vehicle. EtherealX was founded by Manu Nair, Shubhayu Sardar and Prashanth Sharma. Nair and Sardar are former ISRO scientists while Sharma was on the Liquid Propelled Rocket Development team in the University of Minnesota. Nair was previously on the executive team of Manastu Space, a New Space startup that Sharma has designed engines for.
Space City at Tirupati
As part of the Andhra Pradesh Space Policy 2025, there are two ‘Space Cities’ being established in the state, one in Sri Satya Sai District along the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor, and another at Routhasuramala in Tirupati. The latter of these sites capitilises on the proximity to India’s only operational spaceport at Sriharikota. The industrial zone is envisioned as a primary hub for midstream and downstream space activities. Apart from EtherealX, Hyderabad-based new space startup Skyroot Aerospace has also been allocated land at the Space City in Tirupati.