IIT Bombay professor wants cities in Space. Raises Rs 100 cr to fix satellites first

Arindrajit Chowdhury, IIT Bombay professor who once imagined cities in Space is now starting with a more immediate problem: How to keep satellites working in orbit. His startup, InspeCity, based in Thane, Maharashtra, has raised Rs 100 crore to take that idea towards its first orbital missions.For Professor Chowdhury, the question began on a very ordinary Mumbai road. A four-kilometre journey once took him about an hour, making him think about how crowded cities would cope as populations and resource demands grew.His answer was unconventional: move some infrastructure beyond Earth.Chowdhury, a mechanical engineering professor, and his former student and propulsion expert Dr Tausif Shaikh founded InspeCity in 2022. Its early vision was bigger than satellite servicing: factories and eventually cities in space, inspired by physicist Gerard O'Neill's ideas about human settlements beyond Earth. But the founders started with a problem that can be tested sooner.THE SPACE MECHANIC IS BEING BUILTA satellite can become unusable when it runs out of fuel, loses manoeuvrability or develops a fault. Bringing it back to Earth is not practical. Replacing it can be expensive, while abandoning it adds to the growing amount of debris in orbit. InspeCity wants to send another spacecraft to the satellite instead.Its technology stack is built around different jobs. GITA handles propulsion and mobility; CHAKSU provides sensing, tracking and navigation; RAMA is the robotic manipulation system; and SPARSH is designed for autonomous docking and in-orbit refuelling.Together, these technologies form the basis of the company's VEDA architecture for satellite life extension and de-orbiting. InspeCity says its goal is to build reusable orbital vehicles that can inspect, service, refuel and eventually de-orbit satellites.The idea has moved beyond models. The company has tested components in microgravity and secured support through the government's iDEX programme.RS 100 CRORE TO TAKE THE NEXT STEPInspeCity has raised Rs 100 crore, or about $10.5 million, in a pre-Series A round co-led by Speciale Invest and investor Ashish Kacholia, with participation from Antler Elevate, Antler India, Manish Gandhi and Shastra VC.The money will support flight qualification and commercial expansion. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the company plans four in-orbit missions under its RIG-X, VEDA-X and SAMA-X roadmap. The missions will progressively test propulsion, sensing, autonomous operations, robotics, docking and refuelling.THE REAL TEST IS THE FINAL FEW METRESInspeCity has not yet repaired a satellite in orbit. That is why these missions matter.The first steps are about proving that one spacecraft can safely approach another. Later missions will push towards rendezvous and docking, before advanced servicing can be attempted.For an IIT Bombay professor whose original question was about finding more room for humanity, the journey has become more practical. Before building cities in space, Chowdhury wants to build the infrastructure that could make long-term activity in space possible.The next challenge is no longer the traffic jams in Mumbai. It is closing the final few metres between two spacecraft moving at orbital speed.- EndsPublished By: Princy ShuklaPublished On: Aug 31, 2026 14:20 IST