Aule Space is Building Satellite Life-Extension 'Jetpacks'

Aule Space, building the robotic workforce for the space economy, led by Jay Panchal, Nithyaa Giri, and Hrishit Tambi, has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding led by pi Ventures, with participation from a clutch of angel investors, including Eash Sundaram, former Board Member of Intelsat and Founder of Utpata Ventures, and Arvind Lakshmikumar, CEO of defence tech company Tonbo Imaging, among others. Aule Space has been part of the Entrepreneurs First accelerator program and is also backed by the Transpose Platform. 

The new funding will accelerate Aule Space’s engineering expansion, ground test infrastructure, and the first RPOD-demonstration satellites launching next year. These missions will validate safe, precise rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking in orbit.

Aule’s satellite-agnostic docking system and AI-driven GNC algorithms enable one of the lightest, most cost-efficient RPOD-capable satellite fleets. Applications span GEO satellite life extension, debris removal, and defense missions such as on-orbit inspection and space domain awareness.

Satellites in geostationary orbit are routinely retired once fuel is depleted, even though most onboard systems remain functional. GEO spacecraft must constantly counter natural disturbances to hold position over a fixed region on Earth, and without fuel, they drift and become unusable. More than $100 billion worth of commercial GEO satellites are projected to cease revenue generation for this reason alone, as no routine in-orbit servicing infrastructure exists.

Aule Space is closing this gap with an autonomous “jetpack” satellite that docks with aging GEO spacecraft, attaches securely, and takes over station-keeping. This approach can extend the operational life of high-value satellites by up to six years.

Aule’s key advantage is non-cooperative docking, allowing its jetpack satellites to attach to legacy GEO spacecraft not built for servicing. This makes Aule the first Indian company pursuing GEO life-extension and one of only a few globally with comparable capability.

“Satellites worth over $100 billion are abandoned once fuel runs out, a problem RPOD can solve,” said Jay, Co-founder and CEO of Aule Space. “As launch costs fall, routine in-orbit assembly and servicing will become essential.”

“Aule’s RPOD technology enables safer, more efficient, and sustainable satellite operations,” said Manish Singhal, Founding Partner at pi Ventures. “The team combines rare technical depth with a clear commercial roadmap.”

Aule will launch demonstration RPOD satellites next year, laying the foundation for large-scale commercial deployment and a future robotic workforce in orbit.