{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"India Tech Report","title":"Coming up: Jay Panchal, founder at Aule Space, on their mission to extend satellites’ lifespan","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":55,"description":"\nJay Panchal, founder and CEO at Aule Space, along with his fellow founders Nithyaa Giri and Hrishit Tambi, has raised $2 million led by pi Ventures, to build ‘jetpacks’ that can keep satellites going.\n\nListen to the preview\nComing up on Tuesday, Feb. 3\nFor my next episode of Conversations at India Tech Report, I sat down with Jay Panchal, the young Founder and CEO at Aule Space.\nJay and his fellow founders Nithyaa Giri and Hrishit Tambi have raised pre-seed funding for Aule to build autonomous “jetpack” satellites that can dock with spacecraft that are running out of fuel and keep them going in orbit.\nThe round totals $2 million, led by pi Ventures with participation from several angel investors, including former Intelsat board member Eash Sundaram and Tonbo Imaging chief executive Arvind Lakshmikumar.\n\nFounded in 2024 by Jay, Nithyaa and Hrishit, Aule Space is developing satellites that can safely approach, latch on to and manoeuvre other spacecraft, a class of capability known in the trade as Rendezvous, Proximity Operations and Docking (RPOD).\nThe company will use the new capital to expand its engineering team, build ground infrastructure for docking tests and ready its first demonstration satellites, slated to launch next year.\nAule’s design combines a satellite-agnostic docking mechanism with AI-driven guidance, navigation and control algorithms, aiming to field one of the world’s lightest and most cost-efficient RPOD satellite fleets. The company is targeting use-cases from life extension of high-value geostationary communications satellites and debris removal to defence applications such as close-in inspection for space-domain awareness.\nCatch the full conversation right here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here’s a quick preview.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/klwtZi6_OVxR1RQx-EUqBBLq9JNmkk2p0xt3ov7-eeg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kYjRi/MTNkNDVhMTVlOThm/MDM4ZmVlYjFmZGNl/OGFiNy5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}