Bellatrix Aerospace

Bellatrix Aerospace, founded in 2015 and headquartered in Bangalore, India, is an Indian deep tech propulsion company developing green electric propulsion systems for small satellites and orbital transfer vehicles, specializing in a proprietary microwave electrothermal thruster technology that uses water as propellant — making it safer to handle, non-toxic, and compatible with passive-safe launch constraints.

Bellatrix's core technology is the RUDRA microwave electrothermal thruster, which heats water vapor to plasma temperatures using microwave energy, generating thrust from the superheated water/steam expelled through a nozzle. Water propulsion offers compelling advantages: water is completely non-toxic and non-pressurized in liquid form (safe to integrate in rideshare stacks without hazmat procedures), has negligible environmental impact compared to hydrazine or ammonia alternatives, and is available in large quantities enabling simple propellant storage systems. The RUDRA achieves specific impulse of approximately 150-300 seconds — between cold gas and electrothermal alternatives — suitable for attitude control, orbit maintenance, and deorbit maneuvers on 1U-12U CubeSats and small microsatellites.

Bellatrix's Green-Electrothermal Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTVM) extends the propulsion technology to an in-space transportation vehicle capable of moving customer satellites from rideshare deployment orbits to final operational positions — addressing the last-mile delivery gap in the rideshare launch market where SpaceX Transporter and PSLV-SSMS deposit satellites at standard orbits that may not match operator requirements.

Bellatrix was selected for ESA's Business Incubation Centre program and has received support from ISRO, IN-SPACe (India's private space regulator), and seed investors. The company competes with Bradford ECAPS, Busek, and ThrustMe in the green propulsion market for small satellites, differentiating through the water propellant's uniquely benign safety profile and India's growing commercial space ecosystem.