IN-SPACe picks six space firms, from Agnikul to Digantara, for AI INSPIRED grants of up to ₹1 crore each

India's space regulator has named the first companies it will pay to put artificial intelligence on board rockets and spacecraft. IN-SPACe, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, has selected six private space start-ups and small enterprises for seed grants of up to ₹1 crore each under its AI INSPIRED programme. Coverage of the selection appeared around 29–30 October 2026.

The grants are small by the standards of rocket building. The list of problems they target is more telling: precision landing, tracking objects in orbit, spotting debris, servicing satellites, recognising targets automatically and letting spacecraft run themselves. Together they cover most of the hard problems in modern space operations.

The six grantees and what they are building

According to reports of the selection, the six grantees and their projects are:

• Agnikul Cosmos (Chennai): AI-based precision landing. The reported project is an edge-AI vision-based terminal navigation module.
• Digantara (Bengaluru): an Agentic RSO Evaluation Suite (ARES) for evaluating resident space objects. Digantara runs a space situational awareness business that tracks satellites and debris, and the grant supports AI agents that can assess those objects.
• EON Space Labs: AI for space debris detection and real-time situational awareness.
• OrbitAid Aerospace (Chennai): AI to improve satellite servicing and refuelling. The reported work uses machine learning to estimate relative spacecraft position and orientation.
• Omnipresent Robot Technologies (Noida): automated target recognition, with applications in defence and in spacecraft docking.
• TakeMe2Space (Hyderabad): AI-based spacecraft autonomy and control. The start-up is building orbital computing infrastructure.

Two more firms, Foucault Private Limited and AkashaVeda Technologies, were chosen for mentorship and technical support rather than cash. Reports say they will get expert guidance and chances to test their technologies at IN-SPACe and ISRO facilities.

Where the programme came from

IN-SPACe announced AI INSPIRED in February 2026, around the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, as a dedicated track under its existing Seed Fund Scheme. The total outlay is up to ₹6 crore, with no single grantee receiving more than ₹1 crore, and the scheme is open to start-ups and micro and small enterprises.

The parent Seed Fund Scheme dates from 2023. Under it, IN-SPACe gives early-stage space companies non-dilutive grants of up to ₹1 crore, paid in instalments as they reach agreed technical milestones. An expert committee decides the amount and schedule for each project. Because the money is a grant and not equity, founders do not give up ownership. For deep-tech companies that need to show a working prototype before investors will back them, that can be decisive.

AI INSPIRED applies the same model to one question: how to make Indian space hardware smarter.

Why AI matters in orbit

Space operations depend more and more on decisions that have to be made faster than a human operator on the ground can make them.

A booster coming back for landing has seconds to correct its trajectory. A servicing spacecraft closing on a client satellite must judge relative position and motion continuously. As low Earth orbit fills with satellites, operators need software that can sort millions of tracking observations, flag dangerous close approaches and recommend manoeuvres. Satellites far from ground stations, or out of contact for long periods, also benefit from being able to detect faults and act on their own.

Each of the six funded projects maps onto one of these needs. Taken together, they cover the main ways AI is being used in space: guidance and control, perception, situational awareness and onboard autonomy.

What ₹1 crore can and cannot buy

A ₹1 crore grant will not pay for a rocket stage or a satellite. In the IN-SPACe model, it pays for the next proof point: training a model on real or simulated data, building a software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop test bench, or reaching a milestone that unlocks larger private or government funding.

Why it matters for India

India opened its space sector to private companies in 2020 and created IN-SPACe to authorise and promote them. Since then, the number of space start-ups has grown fast, but many still struggle to fund the early, risky stage of development. Programmes such as AI INSPIRED target that gap directly.

The focus on AI is also strategic. Precision landing supports reusable launchers, which can lower the cost of reaching orbit. Debris tracking and space situational awareness help protect India's growing number of satellites, and have clear defence uses. In-orbit servicing and autonomous docking are skills India will need for its planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station and for extending the life of expensive satellites. Building these skills in Indian companies, and not buying them as foreign software, supports the government's push for self-reliance in strategic technology.

The next test will be whether these six projects reach their milestones and produce technology that flies. IN-SPACe has not published a timeline for the projects, and the grants are paid out only as the milestones are met.

Sources

• https://cio.eletsonline.com/artificial-intelligence/in-space-ai-inspired-seed-fund-six-space-startups-ai-grants-agnikul-digantara/76510/
• https://www.insightsonindia.com/2026/10/30/the-ai-inspired-programme/
• https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/in-space-selects-6-firms-for-ai-inspired-program-with-rs1cr/tldr
• https://www.indiandefensenews.in/2026/10/ai-inspired-program-backs-six-space.html
• https://www.indianweb2.com/2026/02/in-space-announces-upto-rs-6-crore-ai.html
• https://swarajyamag.com/science/in-space-seed-fund-scheme-of-up-to-rs-1-crore-to-support-indian-space-startups-in-early-stages