EtherealX Opens The Anchorage, a 150-Acre Rocket Engine Test Complex Near Sriharikota

Ethereal Exploration Guild, the Bengaluru space start-up known as EtherealX or simply "The Guild", has unveiled The Anchorage, a 150-acre rocket development and testing complex in the Space City area of Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The company opened the site on 16 October 2026. It sits roughly 40 km from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) at Sriharikota, India's main spaceport, though some accounts put the distance closer to 50 km.

Most Indian launch start-ups so far have relied on ISRO's facilities, or on small private stands, to fire their engines. The Anchorage is EtherealX's attempt to own the whole test campaign for a much larger, reusable rocket.

The rocket the site is built for

The Anchorage exists to develop Razor Crest Mk 1 (RCM1), the company's planned fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle. RCM1 is designed around two semi-cryogenic engines, which burn refined kerosene with liquid oxygen:

• Pegasus, an upper-stage engine of about 80 kN thrust; and
• Stallion, a gas-generator-cycle booster engine of about 1.2 MN (roughly 120 tonnes-force), intended for lift-off and the climb through the atmosphere.

Semi-cryogenic propulsion is a deliberate choice. It gives much more thrust per engine than the solid motors used on India's small launchers, and kerosene is easier to store and handle than liquid hydrogen. ISRO is developing its own semi-cryogenic engine for the LVM3 upgrade for the same reasons.

What is built and what is not

The Anchorage is still under construction. According to the company's announcement, as reported by several outlets:

• The Pegasus horizontal static test facility is commissioned and operational. It is rated for pressure-fed engine tests at up to 210 bar.
• A vertical test stand for Stallion is under construction. It is meant to support single-engine firings as well as clustered-engine tests, which a booster stage with several engines will need.
• The company plans the first Pegasus hot-fire at The Anchorage in November 2026.
• Over time the site is meant to cover integrated stage qualification and manufacturing. It is also meant to handle the refurbishment and requalification of flown hardware, which a reusable rocket needs between missions.

On money, reports say the company has put in about US$3 million so far and plans another US$4–5 million for the first phase. A separate earlier disclosure, from the company's land acquisition in Tirupati, described a proposed investment of about ₹578 crore for an integrated rocket-engine and launch-vehicle manufacturing and testing facility over time. EtherealX raised a US$20.5 million Series A in January 2026, led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital.

Why owning a test site matters

For any rocket company, engine testing is the slowest and most failure-prone part of development. Every redesign has to be fired, often dozens of times, before it can be trusted, and booking time on another organisation's test stand limits how fast a company can iterate. SpaceX's test site at McGregor, Texas, is often cited as one reason it was able to develop engines quickly.

A reusable rocket also needs a site where flown engines can be inspected, refired and recertified. A test stand next to a manufacturing line and close to the launch site cuts the time and risk of moving hardware.

Andhra Pradesh's push to develop a "Space City" around Sriharikota is also relevant. If start-ups cluster near the spaceport, the region could build a supplier and talent base similar to the one around ISRO centres in Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru.

Context: India's next-generation launchers

Today India's private launch sector is led by small launchers. Skyroot's Vikram-1 reached orbit in July 2026, and Agnikul is preparing its next Agnibaan mission. A reusable medium-lift rocket is a much larger engineering problem, closer in class to the vehicles that dominate the global commercial market. EtherealX is betting that customers will want a cheaper Indian option in that class, and that reusability is the way to make it cheaper.

Many of the claims about RCM1 and Stallion's performance are the company's own. The engines have not yet flown, and the vertical stand that will test the larger engine is not finished. The November hot-fire of Pegasus at the new site will be the first public check on whether the facility works as described.

Even so, a private company building its own large engine-test complex next to India's spaceport shows how the sector is maturing, from start-ups renting ISRO's infrastructure to start-ups building infrastructure of their own.

Sources

• Deccan Chronicle — The Guild unveils 150-acre rocket testing facility near Sriharikota
• GKToday — The Guild unveils The Anchorage rocket test facility
• Manufacturing Today India — Ethereal Exploration Guild launches 150-acre rocket test facility
• NewsBytes — Indian space start-up unveils 150-acre rocket testing facility
• WION — Andhra's Space City project: private firm sets up rocket engine test facility
• Leaders in Law — Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advises Ethereal Exploration Guild on Tirupati land acquisition
• TechCrunch — EtherealX jumps 5.5x in valuation on SpaceX-style reuse bet from India