Inbound Aerospace

Inbound Aerospace is a space-technology startup developing autonomous, unmanned, and reusable spacecraft designed for Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO). Founded in 2025 by Aravind I B, Vishal Reddy, and retired navy captain Abhijit Bhutey, the company was incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The firm aims to address the upcoming gap in microgravity research infrastructure with the planned decommissioning of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030.

The company's core service is providing a recoverable spacecraft platform that delivers customer payloads to space, facilitates in-orbit operations, and safely returns them to Earth. This service targets clients in sectors like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and advanced materials that can leverage microgravity for research, technology demonstrations, and in-space manufacturing. The spacecraft are designed to conduct flights for approximately three months. Primary clients include payload implementation partners who build experiment hardware for companies and universities.

In July 2025, Inbound Aerospace secured over $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, with participation from Piper Serica. This capital is allocated towards research and development, testing of spacecraft sub-systems, and achieving critical design milestones. The company was a national finalist for India at Japan's S-Booster 2025, an international space business competition. Inbound Aerospace is targeting its first mission launch by early 2028.

Keywords: reusable re-entry vehicles, low-earth-orbit, LEO, microgravity research, in-space manufacturing, payload return, autonomous spacecraft, space-tech, orbital science, technology demonstration, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, satellite qualification, experiment delivery, recoverable spacecraft