Inbound aerospace is building a Low-Earth-Orbit based autonomous, unmanned, recoverable spacecraft for customers to conduct in-orbit technology demonstrations, microgravity research and in-space manufacturing of products that have use cases back on Earth. With customer payloads inside, the spacecraft is launched to LEO using available launch vehicles. Once injected into LEO, it facilitates the operation of the customer's payload to perform microgravity experiments and de-orbits to return the finished products to customers.
Startup Description
We came up with this idea because the current process of conducting microgravity experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS), and returning it back is very inefficient, due to the large backlog of experiments and due to the absence of on-demand return capability. The experiments are constrained by astronaut safety considerations, by microgravity level disturbances due to on-board human activities and by high re-entry deceleration loads during re-entry, all which could affect the quality of the finished experiment. Our proposed spacecraft would be solving all the above mentioned problems and can make use of the cheapest launch vehicle available to get to the LEO. Launch vehicle costs are decreasing every year, and we want to be positioned in the right place at the right time.
Product Screenshots
Business Model
First, we intend to offer our self-developed subsystems like thrusters to other aerospace companies as a first revenue source. Then, we offer our platform, first, as an in-space test-bed for organizations to prove their hardware, and second, as a space lab for interested parties to perform microgravity experiments and/or in-space manufacturing. There are a number of players like SpacePharma and Yuri that already make microgravity lab payload modules for experiments in the LEO, needing only a platform to do so. Depending upon the payload module size and our current size estimates, we can accommodate 35-40 payload modules, each of size 24U (20x30x40 cm3). Our biggest technological challenges are re-entry and autonomous landing. To help overcome these problems, we have a couple of mentors who have worked on the same problem at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Customers
based in
India, East Asia, North America, Europe
Business
Modal Type
Service-based. Charged based on usage of our payload volume.
Type of
Sales
B2B
Competitors
Sierra Space, Varda, European Space Agency, Catalyx Space, The Exploration Company, Space Cargo Unlimited, Inversion Space, Elevation Space
Teams
Dr. Aravind I B
Co-founder, CEO
Captain Abhijit Bhutey
Co-founder, CBO
Vishal Reddy
Co-founder, COO
Tell us a bit about how founding team knows
each other.
Co-founder Vishal's mother is also a Yoga teacher at IIT Madras. Aravind and Vishal met for the first time in 2017, when aravind was a yoga student then. Aravind and Abhijit met at a space conference in 2023. Abhijit wanted to retire early from the armed forces to work on space tourism, and when he met aravind, he believed Inbound could be an excellent stepping stone to a long term plan of catering to the space tourism sector.
Why did you decide to start this
company?
We came up with this idea because the current process of conducting microgravity experiments in space and bringing it back is very inefficient, time consuming and expensive.
Are all the founders full-time on this
project?
Yes
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