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Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos inaugurated two facilities on 8 September 2026 - the Stage Testing and Inspection Facility (STIF) and the Pressurant Tank Realisation, Over-wrapping and Outfitting Facility (PROOF).
STIF tests complete rocket stages with integrated propulsion and avionics at thrust levels of 1 kN to 200 kN, with liquid oxygen sub-cooling to 73 Kelvin and burns of up to 150 seconds.
PROOF manufactures composite overwrapped pressure vessels in-house, cutting dependence on outside vendors for pressurant tanks.
The infrastructure supports Mission-02, which aims at India's first recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster.
The facilities were opened in the presence of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, associated with India's Gaganyaan programme.
Agnikul Cosmos founded and incubated at IIT Madras
India's first private launchpad, Dhanush (Agnikul Launchpad-01), inaugurated at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
The single-piece 3D-printed Agnilet semi-cryogenic engine qualified for flight
Agnibaan SOrTeD, Mission-01, flies successfully - India's first semi-cryogenic engine launch and first launch from a private launchpad
STIF and PROOF inaugurated in Chennai to support reusable-stage development for Mission-02
A tank with a thin metallic or polymer liner wound over with carbon-fibre composite. The liner contains the gas while the composite carries the pressure load, so the tank stores gas at very high pressure at a fraction of an all-metal tank's weight.
Simple Analogy: A thin balloon wrapped tightly in strong tape - the tape, not the balloon, holds the pressure.
Single-window authorisation and promotion body for private space activity in India, set up in 2020
National space agency; runs the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme and hosts private launchpads at Sriharikota
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology > Space, indigenisation and private sector participation
General Awareness > Science and Technology
A rocket engine burning refined kerosene with liquid oxygen; only the oxidiser is cryogenic
Bringing back and reusing the first stage of a rocket capable of reaching orbit - the core of reusable launch economics
Composite overwrapped pressure vessel - a lightweight high-pressure tank used to store pressurant gases in rockets