OrbitAid’s AyulSAT
Context: India is set to demonstrate in-orbit satellite refuelling for the first time as Chennai-based OrbitAid’s AyulSAT is launched onboard ISRO’s PSLV-C62.
About OrbitAid’s AyulSAT:
What it is?
- AyulSAT is a 25-kg dedicated tanker-satellite and target spacecraft designed to demonstrate fuel transfer, power transfer and data transfer in orbit using a standardized docking and refuelling interface.
Developed by: OrbitAid Aerospace, a Chennai-based Indian space startup founded by Sakthikumar Ramachandran.
Launched through: ISRO’s PSLV-C62 mission.
Aim: To demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer and docking readiness, enabling satellite life-extension, servicing, and reduction of space debris, and to lay the foundation of an on-orbit space economy.
Key Features:
- Internal refuelling demonstration: Transfers fuel from one tank to another within the same satellite to study fluid behaviour in microgravity.
- SIDRP interface: Uses OrbitAid’s Standard Interface for Docking and Refuelling Port for future spacecraft-to-spacecraft refuelling.
- Multi-utility transfer: Capable of fuel, power and data transfer.
- RPOD-ready: Will act as the target satellite for a future chaser satellite that will dock and perform actual in-orbit refuelling by end-2026.
- Commercially oriented: India’s first commercial docking and refuelling interface deployed in orbit.
Significance:
- Satellite life extension: Allows satellites in LEO and GEO to be refuelled instead of being abandoned.
- Space debris reduction: Prevents dead satellites from becoming orbital junk, supporting Debris-Free Space Mission 2030.