Bangalore-based private space technology company Ethereal Exploration Guild (The Guild) has unveiled The Anchorage, a 150-acre rocket development and testing complex in Space City, Andhra Pradesh, located around 40 km from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) at Sriharikota, The Hindu reported.

The facility has been established to provide the ground infrastructure required for the development, testing, qualification, manufacturing and future operation of the company's Razor Crest Mk 1 (RCM1), a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle.

RCM1 is being designed with the goal of recovering and reusing both its booster and upper stage, placing it among a new generation of reusable launch systems intended to lower launch costs and improve operational efficiency.

The launch vehicle will be powered by two semi-cryogenic rocket engines. These include Pegasus, an 80 kN upper-stage engine developed for the reusable upper stage, and Stallion, a 1.2 MN gas-generator booster engine designed to support lift-off and atmospheric ascent.

According to the company, Pegasus incorporates its proprietary Full-Flow Segregated Cooling Cycle (FSCC) technology together with a dual-thrust-chamber architecture. The Guild stated that the technology was developed entirely in-house and represents a rocket engine feed cycle specifically engineered for upper-stage reusability, which it describes as a first in rocketry.

The Anchorage is intended to support every stage of hardware development, beginning with individual engine components and progressing through integrated propulsion systems to complete rocket-stage testing and qualification.

Manu J. Nair, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Guild, said the facility represents a long-term investment in the capabilities needed to test, manufacture and repeatedly operate the Razor Crest MK-1 system.

He noted that achieving full reusability requires more than innovative vehicle design. It also depends on an integrated industrial ecosystem in which manufacturing, qualification, refurbishment and operational processes function together throughout the rocket's service life.

According to him, the company is developing this supporting infrastructure in parallel with the advancement of its engines and rocket stages, creating the foundations required for routine reusable launch operations.

The company said the facility has been designed around a progressive testing philosophy, enabling engineers to validate individual subsystems before moving to larger, more complex integrated systems.

Prashanth Sharma, co-founder of The Guild, explained that while engine testing establishes propulsion performance, stage qualification evaluates how engines perform when integrated with tanks, feed systems, structures, avionics and flight-control systems.

He said The Anchorage is being developed to support that development pathway, beginning with Pegasus component testing and integrated engine firings before advancing towards Stallion engine clusters and complete rocket stages.

The approach is expected to generate extensive test data for engineering validation, support hardware qualification and accelerate the maturation of the company's reusable launch vehicle programme.

The investment also reflects the growing role of India's private space sector following policy reforms that opened launch vehicle development and space transportation activities to non-government companies.

By establishing a large-scale testing and development complex close to the country's primary spaceport, The Guild aims to strengthen indigenous launch capabilities while advancing its long-term objective of fully reusable orbital launch systems.

Agencies