Agnikul’s Big Bet to Make Rockets Reusable and Turn Them Into Space Platforms | The Spark Series

"Reusability & repeatability is the only path to commercial viability in the rocket business.”

"And that will be the key to opening the doors to space," says Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO of Agnikul Cosmos.

India could soon have its very own private, recoverable orbital class booster, a key step towards making rockets reusable and reducing launch costs. Behind this is Chennai based space tech firm Agnikul which achieved a series of firsts in its maiden launch in 2024 with the Agnibaan (SOrTED) rocket - being India’s first semi cryogenic rocket powered by the world’s first single piece 3d printed engine. It is now gearing up for a far more ambitious test.

On Episode 3 of the #TheSparkSeries, in the run up to #TechSparks2026, we get a ringside view of preparations that are in full swing for Mission 2 at Agnikul’s Testing & Assembly Facility at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus.

Founders Srinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM break down how they are executing their launch “anywhere, anytime , affordably vision with a goal of productionalising 10 vehicles for 100 launches and outline their flexible "rocket-as-a-satellite" model where the upper stage can be transformed into an in-orbit platform.

Watch this episode for a deep dive on the engineering behind developing configurable launch vehicles, booster recovery systems aiming for early 2027 and how India’s private space sector is positioning itself to lead the global commercial launch market.