Bellatrix Aerospace

Bellatrix Aerospace is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and small satellite manufacturing company, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. The company was established in 2015 and in June 2022, the company raised $8 million in a Series A funding round to pursue the development of in-space propulsion systems.

Name
The name Bellatrix is from the Latin bellātrix which means "female warrior". It was also used in naming the red supergiant star Bellatrix.

History
Bellatrix Aerospace had initially proposed the development of its small-lift orbital class launch vehicle named Chetak and had planned for its launch in 2023. The two-stage Chetak was to be powered by a number of its proposed Aeon engines which would use liquid methane as propellant. Later in 2019, water was proposed as a propellant for an electric propulsion system. On 8 February 2021, Bellatrix Aerospace announced its partnership with Skyroot Aerospace. However, on 9 February 2022, Founder Rohan Ganapathy announced on Twitter that the company had stopped working on its rocket and instead focusing exclusively on propulsion systems.