SpaceX India’s rival, EtherealX, has achieved 5x its value as it prepares for engine testing

Ethereal Exploration Guild, Indian space technology better known as EtherealXhas risen 5.5x in value to $80.5 million after its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be reusable and preparing for a hot fire test of the engine before the first technology demonstration flight, which is planned for 2027.

The Bengaluru-based company has confirmed that it has closed an oversubscribed $20.5 million Series A round led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, as TechCrunch reported previous. Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund, and Riceberg Ventures also participated, EtherealX said. Be polite in the following a $5 million seed round in August 2024 with a starting price of $14.6 million.

As India pushes to develop its space ecosystem beyond small launchers and component contracts – it targets the growth of the space economy $45 billion from $8 billion over the next decade – EtherealX is one of the startups that is attracting attention.

Satellite operators around the world are looking for more launch capacity and scheduling flexibility in a market where SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has set the benchmark for price and cadence. EtherealX leads the way with reusable vehicles designed to produce boosters and top stags. This is an approach that, if proven, could reduce the cost per launch and increase the frequency of flights without relying on the original constellation to keep the rocket fully charged.

EtherealX is developing two engines in-house: the 80-kilonewton “Pegasus” upper stage engine and the 1.2-meganewton “Stallion” booster engine, with hot-fire tests targeted for June-July. Thrust, measured in kilonewtons and meganewtons, shows how much lift an engine can generate.

The startup is targeting a November-December 2027 launch window for a technology demonstration vehicle, ahead of a commercial mission that will begin in late 2028, co-founder and CEO Manu J. Nair said in an interview.

Rocket engineers also track specific impulse, a widely used proxy for fuel efficiency, which — along with thrust — helps determine how much payload a vehicle can carry for a given propellant.

The Pegasus engine produces 323 seconds of vacuum-specific impulse and uses what the startup describes as a “full-flow split cooling cycle.” The engine incorporates a turbopump that is additionally made in-house. Furthermore, the Stallion booster engine uses a gas generator cycle and delivers 306 seconds of sea level specific impulse.

Nair told TechCrunch that EtherealX plans to cluster multiple engines per stage for its main medium-lift vehicle, called the Razor Crest Mk-1, with nine Stallion engines in the booster and 15 Pegasus engines in the upper stage.

For comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 mainly uses the first stage booster when throwing the upper stage. EtherealX targets deeper reuse by designing vehicles to produce boosters and upper stages.

The EtherealX vehicle aims to carry up to 24.8 tons in disposable configuration, 22.8 tons partially reusable, and about 8 tons if reusable. The startup is targeting a price of $350 to $2,000 per kilogram over time, Nair said, depending on configuration and cadence.

To support development, EtherealX operates a rocket engine test site in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, known as Base 001, which Nair said is focused on qualifying the upper stage engine. The startup has also acquired a 150-acre manufacturing and testing campus in Andhra Pradesh’s proposed space city that it expects to be operational from mid-2026 for testing of integrated engines and stages.

EtherealX has signed a launch memorandum of understanding totaling $130 million with customers, including Japan’s SpaceBD and Taiwan’s space agency, TASA, Nair said, as it seeks initial commercial demand before its first demonstration flight.

The latest funding will be used to complete the flight qualification of the Stallion booster engine and to conduct test firings of the Pegasus upper stage engine, Nair said. To support the ramp-up, the startup currently employs 67 people and expects to grow to around 90 over the next two months as it increases manufacturing capacity and moves to a higher test cadence ahead of its first demonstration flight.