Manastu Space

Manastu Space makes satellite thrusters that burn MS289, a propellant it developed from hydrogen peroxide. It is meant to replace hydrazine, the toxic fuel long used in satellite thrusters. The range runs from Sharanga, for cubesats, to I-Booster, for satellites of 100 to 500 kg. GP-LAM is a larger 300 N thruster for the upper stages of rockets.

Tushar Jadhav, a former DRDO scientist, and Ashtesh Kumar set up Manastu in 2017. Both studied at IIT Bombay, where much of the early development was done. DRDO's Technology Development Fund supported four years of work on I-Booster, and Manastu delivered the system to DRDO in December 2024. Its first commercial contract came in 2022, with Latitude, a French launch startup, to develop GP-LAM.

Its Vyom-2U thruster flew on POEM-4, the spent upper stage of the PSLV that launched ISRO's SpaDeX mission. It first fired on 31 December 2024 and tilted the 1,408 kg platform by 24 degrees. Over the next two and a half months it fired for a total of 700 seconds, including one burn of 360 seconds, and restarted more than 20 times. GATISat, a 150 kg satellite bus that Manastu is developing with Astrome and TakeMe2Space for IN-SPACe's Satellite Bus as a Service scheme, will use its propulsion.