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Incubated at IIT Madras in 2017, the start-up aims to cut production cost of aerospace and rocket parts by 50 per cent, while reducing waste and speeding up manufacturing
The facility includes a fully-integrated ecosystem for design, simulation, printing, post-processing, and finishing to improve quality, reliability, and build supply chain. (News18)
Chennai-based space tech start-up Agnikul Cosmos has announced commissioning of an additive manufacturing for aerospace and rocket systems to enable faster production of complex custom designs with less waste and almost 50 per cent less cost.
The facility includes a fully-integrated ecosystem for design, simulation, printing, post-processing, and finishing to improve quality, reliability, and build supply chain. “For the first time in India, the facility also enables 3D printing of aerospace and rocket components up to one metre in height,” it announced on Tuesday. The facility will allow manufacturers to produce flight-ready hardware within a few days—that were previously considered difficult for additive manufacturing—a process of 3D printing to build objects, different from traditional machining. It also has an indigenously designed and developed de-powdering machine for smooth post-processing system.
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“Agnikul was started with the goal of making space available to everyone. One way to do that is build capability that allows us to advance rocket manufacturing with precision while also focusing on quality,” said Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO of Agnikul Cosmos. “By developing not just printing capacity but also full-scale machines in-house, we are equipping ourselves to build space transportation systems faster, bringing us one step closer to taking Agnikul’s innovations & our customers to space.”
Incubated at IIT Madras in 2017, the start-up had earlier successfully test-fired its indigenously-built rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, marking the first time a rocket took flight from Sriharikota’s first private launch pad Dhanush which the team had designed and developed. Another unique factor in the mission was the use of single-piece 3D printed engines that the Agnikul team has indigenously manufactured and patented.
“Agnikul already holds a US patent for single-piece 3D-printed rocket engines. This facility will allow the company to print engines measuring one metre and deliver seven times the thrust of its earlier designs. With this facility now commissioned, the company can manufacture these engines in just days, and that too in-house, speeding up development cycles and enabling rapid innovation at scale,” it stated.
“With this facility in place, we are advancing our own launch readiness and also helping shape the foundation for a self-sustaining and globally competitive space industry in India,” said Moin SPM, Co-founder & COO of Agnikul Cosmos.
Over 250 space-tech start-ups have mushroomed across India since the government opened the space sector for private participation in 2020.
About the Author
Srishti Choudhary, Senior Assistant Editor at CNN-News18 specializes in science, environment, and climate change reporting. With over a decade of extensive field experience, she has brought incisive ground repo…Read More
Srishti Choudhary, Senior Assistant Editor at CNN-News18 specializes in science, environment, and climate change reporting. With over a decade of extensive field experience, she has brought incisive ground repo… Read More
September 23, 2025, 15:07 IST
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