Bengaluru startup Akashlabdhi readies July launch of AntarikshHAB, India’s first inflatable space habitat

Key facts

• Akashlabdhi, incubated at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), completed key habitat tests in Switzerland with partners including European Space Agency (ESA).
• The July mission will launch a 70 cubic metre scaled version of AntarikshHAB aboard a vehicle supplied by Spanish firm PLD Space.
• The inflatable module will be deployed in orbit, then de-orbited for atmospheric re-entry and post-flight material inspection.
• Underground validation tests at Versuchsstollen Hagerbach (VSH) run by Amberg Group covered pressure, leak-before-burst, thermal cycling, accelerated ageing, and micrometeoroid impact simulations.
• Indian academic contributors are IISc, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-Roorkee) and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi); Swiss partners include ETH Zurich, EMPA and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
• The programme is grant-supported by ESA and its partners and aims to advance the habitat to Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL-6).