OrbitAID Aerospace

OrbitAID Aerospace, headquartered in Bengaluru, India and founded in 2021, is India's first on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling startup — developing autonomous docking interfaces, refueling systems, and robotic servicing capabilities for satellite life extension, targeting the growing commercial and government satellite operator market that seeks to extend the operational life of GEO and LEO satellites beyond their original design propellant lifetimes rather than decommissioning and replacing them at enormous cost.

OrbitAID's core technology is the SIDRP (Satellite Interface for Docking, Refueling, and Propulsion) — a standardized docking and propellant transfer interface designed to be retrofittable to existing satellites and built into new satellite designs. The standardization approach is critical: for satellite servicing to scale as a commercial business, servicer vehicles need to be able to dock with satellites from multiple manufacturers and operators without requiring each satellite to have a custom-designed interface, just as standardized fuel nozzles enable tanker aircraft to refuel any compatible military aircraft.

SIDRP addresses the propellant transfer challenge for high-efficiency electric propulsion satellites (which use xenon, krypton, or iodine as propellant) and conventional bipropellant satellites.

OrbitAID operates a 6,500 square foot research and development facility in Bengaluru and has raised $2.04 million in early funding including a $1.5 million seed round in 2025 — small capital deployment for the development phase of deep space rendezvous technology, consistent with the early R&D and concept validation stage the company is in. The Bengaluru location places OrbitAID at the center of India's commercial space ecosystem, adjacent to ISRO's U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), the Indian Space Association (ISpA) member companies, and the growing IN-SPACe-regulated private space sector.

OrbitAID competes with Northrop Grumman's MEV (Mission Extension Vehicle) — which has demonstrated commercial GEO satellite life extension — Astroscale, and U.S. startups Orbit Fab and Starfish Space as the on-orbit servicing market develops.