https://exceptional.technology/aquaairx-avataar-amphibious-drone-india-3/ 2026-10-19 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/avataar_2x.png One Machine, Air and Water: Inside AquaAirX’s AVATAAR, the Drone That Flies and Dives Most drones have a hard boundary: the water’s surface. An aerial drone can spot a suspect vessel or a drowning swimmer from the sky, but the moment the action moves below the surface, you need an entirely different machine — an underwater robot with different propulsion, different navigation, and a different control... https://exceptional.technology/tridentech-30hp-wankel-engine-cemilac-uav/ 2026-10-19 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/tridentech-30hp-wankel-engine.jpg India’s Drones Are Getting an Indigenous Heart: Inside TridenTech’s CEMILAC-Certified 30 HP Wankel Engine Most of the military drones flying in Indian skies run on imported engines. For a country trying to indigenise its defence supply chain, that is an uncomfortable dependency: the powerplant is the heart of the machine, and India has historically bought that heart from abroad. In Chennai, a small aerospace firm workin... https://exceptional.technology/picraft-technology-swarm-drones-ladakh-16500-feet/ 2026-10-19 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/picraft-harpy-eagle.jpg Swarming the Thin Air: Inside Picraft, the Dehradun Startup Flying Autonomous Drone Swarms at 16,500 Feet Image credit: Photo by Krishna Singh / Picraft Technology (via Defence Blog). On 17 October 2026, reports from Indian defence media carried a striking announcement out of Dehradun: Picraft Technology, a young defence startup, had completed high-altitude trials of its indigenous swarm drone technology at roughly 16,5... https://exceptional.technology/green-aero-blue-dragon-hydrogen-jet-engine-india/ 2026-10-19 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/green-aero-blue-dragon-featured.jpg Reinventing the Jet Engine: Inside Green Aero, the Indian Startup Hot-Firing Its Way to Homegrown Propulsion Image credit: Green Aero — official company visual. On 14 October 2026, an investor profile of Green Aero put a number to a quiet three-year grind: the Bengaluru deep-tech startup has hot-fired its supercritical carbon-dioxide turbines more than 700 times — and signed L&T Defence to license the technology and supply... https://exceptional.technology/astrogate-labs-optical-inter-satellite-link-india/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/astrogate-labs-laser-link-satellites.webp Talking Lasers: Inside Astrogate Labs, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s Optical Internet in Orbit Image credit: Astrogate Labs. There were over 11,700 active satellites in orbit by the middle of 2025, and the number keeps climbing as constellations expand. Every one of them needs to talk — to the ground and to each other — and the radio spectrum they have used since the 1950s has changed little in […] https://exceptional.technology/digantara-scot-mosaic-india-space-surveillance/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/digantara-mosaic-sensor-node-scaled.png Watching the Watchers: Inside Digantara, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s Space Surveillance Network Image credit: Digantara. Roughly 40,000 objects large enough to track are circling the Earth — working satellites, dead ones, spent rocket stages and fragments of debris, all moving at several kilometres per second. For most of them, India has had no independent way of watching. The world’s orbital traffic picture i... https://exceptional.technology/blunav-aerios-airport-operating-system-chennai/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/blunav-aerios-resource-allocation.jpg One Screen for Every Runway: Inside Blunav, the Chennai Startup Building India’s Own Airport Operating System Image credit: Blunav. At Chennai International Airport, one of India’s busiest gateways, the people who keep flights moving are increasingly doing it on software built in Chennai. A small startup called Blunav has put its Aerios airport operating system into live operation at the airport under the Airports Authority... https://exceptional.technology/tonbo-imaging-itar-free-thermal-imaging-india/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/tonbo-naval-turret.jpg The Eyes That See in the Dark: Inside Tonbo Imaging, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s ITAR-Free Thermal-Imaging Stack Image credit: Tonbo Imaging. This week, a Bengaluru defence-electronics company opened an ₹852-crore initial public offering that is unusual in one quiet but decisive respect: the company going public sells the “eyes” of modern military equipment, and it owns every piece of the technology behind them. Tonbo Imaging ... https://exceptional.technology/aequs-belagavi-safran-aerospace-deals-10000-tonne-press/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/aequs-sez-gate.jpg A 10,000-Tonne Press, 25,000 Wheels and Counting: Inside Aequs, the Belagavi Company Locking In Decades of Aerospace Deals Image credit: Aequs — official company visual. Somewhere over the Atlantic right now, an Airbus A320 is climbing with a piece of Belagavi bolted to its fuselage. That is not a stretch: Safran has just signed long-term supply agreements with Aequs, the Belagavi precision-manufacturing company, for critical aerospace ... https://exceptional.technology/cogknit-semantics-zen-technologies-defence-ai-battlefield/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/featured-blade-1200x630-1.png The AI Lab Teaching Soldiers Mandarin: Inside Cogknit, the Battlefield-AI Startup Zen Just Paid ₹135 Crore For Image credit: Cogknit — official company visual. A listed defence major is paying up to ₹135.15 crore for a controlling stake in a company whose last reported annual turnover was ₹48 lakh. The company is not a fraud, and the buyer is not reckless: Zen Technologies’ board, which approved the deal on 17 October 2026, […] https://exceptional.technology/one-airframe-every-mission-inside-izis-vana-the-bhopal-surveillance-drone-drdo-just-ordered/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/izi-vana-surveillance-drone.png One Airframe, Every Mission: Inside IZI’s VANA, the Bhopal Surveillance Drone DRDO Just Ordered Image credit: IZI — official company visual. Most surveillance drones come down for a battery swap after an hour. The one DRDO just ordered from a Bhopal startup is designed to stay up for a day. On 6 October 2026, the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Proof & Experimental Establishment (PXE) — the arm... https://exceptional.technology/zero-mk-dilution-refrigerator-drdo-quantum/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/zeromk-picture1.png Colder Than Deep Space: Inside Zero mK, the Alwar Startup Building India’s First Indigenous Dilution Refrigerator Image credit: Zero mK India — official company visual. Twenty millikelvin. That is 0.02 degrees above absolute zero — roughly 135 times colder than the background temperature of deep space. It is also the temperature at which the quantum computers India wants to build this decade have to live. The catch: the machine... https://exceptional.technology/neuralix-ai-ekam-sovereign-military-ai-india/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/neuralix-featured-1200x630-1.png Built Behind Air Gaps: Inside Neuralix AI, the Bengaluru Startup Giving the Indian Army Its Own Military-Grade AI Neuralix AI built EKAM — a sovereign military generative-AI platform plus a ground-up defence foundation model, deployed air-gapped inside the Indian Army under iDEX ADITI 2.0. https://exceptional.technology/newspace-sheshnaag-150-rato-loitering-munition-india/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/newspace-logo.png No Runway Required: Inside NewSpace, the Bengaluru Startup Behind India’s 1,000-km Sheshnaag Strike Drone Image credit: NewSpace Research & Technologies — official company visual. Most strike drones need a runway, a catapult or at least a long, clear stretch of road to get airborne. NewSpace Research & Technologies wants to delete that requirement entirely. On 15 October 2026, the Bengaluru aerospace and defence startup... https://exceptional.technology/axl-systems-axldrone-kochi-indian-army-drones-msg-rfid/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/axl-peregrine-drone.png Drones for the Army, Checkouts for the Knicks: Inside AXL Systems, the Kochi Company Building Entirely Made-in-India Hardware Image credit: axldrone — official company visual. One end of the business builds long-range surveillance drones in joint development with the Indian Army, from an office in Kochi. The other end powers autonomous merchandise checkout stations for New York Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden. The common thread at AXL... https://exceptional.technology/grahaa-space-solaras-nanosatellite-live-earth-video/ 2026-10-18 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/grahaa-solaras-s2.jpg A Live Feed from Low Earth Orbit: Inside Grahaa Space, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s Nanosatellite Video Stack Image credit: Grahaa Space — official company visual. Nearly every picture of the Earth you have ever seen from orbit is a snapshot — taken hours, days or weeks before you looked at it. For a country responding to a flood, a ship moving through contested waters, or a crop wilting in a district nobody […] https://exceptional.technology/muks-robotics-spaceo-prime-isro-humanoid/ 2026-10-17 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/muks-spaceo-prime-featured.png From airport terminals to orbit: inside Muks Robotics and SPACEO Prime, the humanoid it says it’s building with ISRO Image credit: Muks Robotics In February 2026, passengers at Pune Airport met an unusual new member of the terminal staff: a 1.6-metre humanoid called Spaceo M1, introduced on a trial basis by the Airports Authority of India to answer questions, give directions and talk about the city. Eight months later, the Pune st... https://exceptional.technology/drogo-aerospace-jk-250e-dgca-certified-vtol-drone/ 2026-10-17 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/drogo-jk250e-featured.jpg No runway, no problem: inside Drogo Aerospace, the Hyderabad startup putting a DGCA-certified hybrid VTOL drone on Army duty Image credit: Drogo Aerospace A fixed-wing drone cruises for hours but needs a runway. A multirotor lifts off anywhere but guzzles its battery and comes home early. For the Indian Army’s surveillance missions — border ridges, forward posts, terrain with no airfield in sight — neither is enough on its own. A Hyderaba... https://exceptional.technology/okulo-aerospace-suvi-solar-drone-haps-5g/ 2026-10-17 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/img_lale.png Seven hours on sunlight: inside Okulo Aerospace, the Bengaluru startup flying India’s first DGCA-certified solar drone and building a 5G tower for the stratosphere Image credit: Okulo Aerospace A drone that never needs to land to refuel is not a new dream. Solar wings have been sketched on whiteboards for decades, but making one fly — reliably, legally, and in the thin, freezing air over the Himalayas — is where the dream usually ends. A Bengaluru startup has now […] https://exceptional.technology/etherealx-razor-crest-mk1-fully-reusable-rocket-anchorage/ 2026-10-17 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/etherealx-turbopump.jpg The rocket that comes all the way back: inside EtherealX’s bid for a fully reusable Indian launcher Image credit: EtherealX SpaceX made rocket boosters landing themselves look routine. The upper stage is a different story — every Falcon 9 still throws one away on re-entry. On 16 October 2026, a Bengaluru startup unveiled a 150-acre campus in Andhra Pradesh dedicated to solving the other half. Ethereal Exploration ... https://exceptional.technology/sanyark-space-navcom-satellite-constellation-india/ 2026-10-16 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/sanyark-space-technologies-official-logo.png From metres to centimetres: inside Sanyark Space’s NAV-COM constellation, the two ex-ISRO founders building a sovereign navigation layer Image credit: Sanyark Space Technologies India knows its position in the sky only to within a few metres. The GPS signal on your phone, and even India’s own NavIC system, typically lands somewhere inside a five-metre circle — fine for getting you to the right street, but useless for landing a drone on a launch […] https://exceptional.technology/vecros-jetcore-gps-denied-drone-autonomy-india/ 2026-10-16 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jetcore-vecros-official.webp No GPS, no pilot, no problem: inside VECROS’ Jetcore, the India-designed board flying drones without GPS Image credit: VECROS In modern warfare, the cheapest way to kill a drone is not a missile — it is a jammer. A radio box worth a few lakh rupees can flood the GPS band and leave a million-dollar autonomous system blind. VECROS, a Bengaluru deep-tech company, has built its entire product line around that […] https://exceptional.technology/qosmic-argus-optical-ground-station-laser/ 2026-10-16 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/qosmic_featured.jpg Catching lasers from space: inside QOSMIC’s ARGUS and India’s optical ground-station bet A modern Earth-observation satellite can image vast swathes of the planet in a single pass, capture terabytes of data a day, and then throw most of it away. Legacy radio links, capped at 1–2 gigabits per second, can offload only a fraction during the brief windows a satellite spends over a ground station. As QOSMIC’... https://exceptional.technology/built-for-the-jammed-sky-inside-phoqtek-labs-garudanav-and-indias-indigenous-gps-denied-navigation-bet/ 2026-10-16 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/phoqtek-labs-logo.png Built for the jammed sky: inside PhoQtek Labs’ GarudaNav and India’s indigenous GPS-denied navigation bet PhoQtek Labs doesn’t build drones — it builds what keeps them flying when the enemy kills the GPS. Inside GarudaNav, the indigenous GPS-denied navigation module tested at IAF Dronathon 2026. https://exceptional.technology/big-bang-boom-solutions-quantum-radar-quantew/ 2026-10-16 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/bbbs_vajra.png Chasing stealth with entangled light: inside BBBS’s sovereign quantum radar plan The hardest targets in the sky are the ones you cannot see — stealth-shaped, radar-quiet, or deliberately spoofed. Conventional radar has an answer for none of these at once. In Chennai, a defence deeptech startup is betting the answer lies in entangled photons. The company is Big Bang Boom Solutions (BBBS), and on ... https://exceptional.technology/cosmochute-leap-lunar-logistics-india/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/cosmochute-epoc-oasys.png A freight train for the Moon: inside Cosmochute, the Indian startup building lunar logistics Every mission to the Moon rebuilds its own way of moving things around. Ahmedabad’s Cosmochute wants to change that — with LEAP, a standardised rover-and-trailer platform for the lunar surface, and a $1.5 million pre-seed round from Accel and Prosus Ventures to build it. https://exceptional.technology/orbitaid-aayulsat-1a-satellite-refuelling-demo/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/orbitaid-tanker-satellite.png Refuel, don’t replace: inside OrbitAID, the Indian startup building a petrol pump in orbit Every satellite carries an expiry date, and it is rarely the hardware that fails first — it is the fuel gauge. A perfectly healthy spacecraft becomes very expensive debris the moment its propellant runs out. An Indian startup founded in 2021 has spent the last five years betting the fix is as simple as the […] https://exceptional.technology/paninian-yantur-turbofan-engine-hyderabad/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/paninian-svayatt-m1-exploded-engine-render.jpg First, build the engine: inside Paninian’s Yantur, India’s first private-sector turbofan of its class India has long built the missiles and the airframes, then looked abroad for the engines to power them. In July 2026, just days after Skyroot’s Vikram-1 became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit, a Hyderabad deeptech company stepped into the spotlight from a different direction: Paninian India... https://exceptional.technology/built-for-q-day-inside-pramatra-space-the-bengaluru-startup-putting-quantum-encryption-on-a-chip/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pramatra-qkd-satellite.webp Built for Q-Day: inside Pramatra Space, the Bengaluru startup putting quantum encryption on a chip Pramatra Space is building satellite-based quantum key distribution on an integrated-photonics chip — encryption keys that physics itself protects, aimed at the day RSA stops working. https://exceptional.technology/built-to-kill-drones-inside-ig-defences-jwala-indias-first-private-micro-missile/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ig-defence-jwala-mk1-official-1.webp Built to kill drones: inside IG Defence’s JWALA, India’s first private micro-missile IG Defence, the startup that began in 2018 as IG Drones mapping mines and pipelines in Odisha, has test-fired two solid rocket motors for JWALA, the micro-missile it is developing to kill hostile drones. According to Business Standard, the firings — conducted in the early hours of 3 October 2026 — are a key step […] https://exceptional.technology/oxg-space-edge-cell-towers-orbit-in-orbit-computing/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/oxg-space-logo.png The Bengaluru startup building “cell towers in orbit” for Earth-observation satellites OXG Space, a Bengaluru spacetech startup, is building what it calls “edge cell towers in space” — shared orbital infrastructure that keeps satellites connected and processes their data in orbit, so Earth-observation intelligence reaches the ground in near-real time instead of hours later. Founded by former ISRO engi... https://exceptional.technology/aerodrone-robotics-fpv-drones-indian-army-order/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/aerodrone-kamikaze-fpv-drone.jpg Meet AeroDrone Robotics, the Gurugram startup whose FPV drones won a 225-unit Army order AeroDrone Robotics, a Gurugram-based drone technology company, has secured an Indian Army order for 225 seven-inch first-person-view (FPV) drones after a competitive evaluation that included field trials at altitudes of up to 17,500 feet, according to The Times of India. It is one of the clearest recent signals that... https://exceptional.technology/hex20-uae-asteroid-probe-justitia/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hex20-asteroid-probe-spacecraft.png To Justitia and Beyond: The Thiruvananthapuram Startup Building the UAE’s Asteroid Probe In early October 2026, a spacecraft built to crash into a rock between Mars and Jupiter was unveiled in Abu Dhabi — before Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. The probe is the only deployable payload of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, and the spacecraft bus carrying […] https://exceptional.technology/aksi-aerospace-agni-kalash-combat-drone-india/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/aksi-aerospace-logo.jpg Agni Kalash: AKSI Aerospace’s 300-km Combat Drone Built on India’s Own Tech Stack On 3 October 2026, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated Agni Kalash, a long-range combat drone developed by Hyderabad-based AKSI Aerospace Group, at the PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit 2026 in Vijayawada. The aircraft was developed by DronAgni Combat Drones Pvt Ltd, a group company of AKSI Aer... https://exceptional.technology/dreamfly-innovations-drone-batteries-bengaluru/ 2026-10-15 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/dreamfly-eionic-battery-scaled.jpg 20°C Cooler, −40°C to +65°C: Inside Dreamfly Innovations, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s Drone Batteries A drone is only as useful as its battery. Most Indian drones fly for 20 to 30 minutes at a stretch — and the packs they fly on are overwhelmingly imported. India has built a large drone industry without building the component supply chain underneath it. Dreamfly Innovations, a Bengaluru startup, is trying to change […] https://exceptional.technology/built-to-hunt-not-hover-inside-apollyons-ahuti-mk-ii-the-498-km-h-drone-interceptor/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/apollyon-ahuti-mk2-interceptor.jpg Built to Hunt, Not Hover: Inside Apollyon’s Ahuti Mk II, the 498 km/h Drone Interceptor Most multirotor drones are built to hover. This one is built to hunt. In September 2026, Hyderabad defence startup Apollyon Dynamics announced that its Ahuti Mk II interceptor had recorded a certified top speed of 498 km/h — a figure recognised by the India Book of Records as the fastest multirotor UAV ever recorded... https://exceptional.technology/red-balloon-aerospace-vista-near-space-balloon/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/red-balloon-vista-balloon.jpg India’s First Near-Space Balloon: Inside Red Balloon’s 25-km Mission SANA Red Balloon Aerospace’s VISTA super-pressure balloon rose 25 km over Vijayawada on Mission SANA, putting India in a five-nation club with an indigenous near-space platform. https://exceptional.technology/flying-wedge-defence-fwd-supreme-ai-piloted-fighter-jet/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/fwd-supreme-concept.jpg India’s First AI-Piloted Fighter Jet: Inside Flying Wedge Defence’s FWD Supreme On Tuesday, 13 October, in New Delhi, Bengaluru-based startup Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA) unveiled a full-scale static prototype of the FWD Supreme Heavy — the aircraft it proposes as India’s first AI-piloted fighter jet. The company positions India among a small group of countries — alongside the United... https://exceptional.technology/dhruva-space-leap2-full-stack-space-infrastructure/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/dhruva_hero-1.webp Building the Roads to Orbit: Inside Dhruva Space, the Hyderabad Company That Carries Other Companies’ Satellites to Space At one in the morning on 2 October 2026, a SpaceX Falcon 9 dropped 130 payloads into orbit over California, and one of the smallest packages on board may have been the most quietly ambitious. It was a satellite from Hyderabad called LEAP-2 — and its job was not to take pictures or process data. […] https://exceptional.technology/pixxel-firefly-hyperspectral-constellation-bengaluru/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/firefly_render.jpg Seeing Earth in 135 Colours: Inside Pixxel, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s Hyperspectral Constellation An ordinary camera sees the world in three colours. The satellites flying over your head right now can see it in more than 135. One of them can tell, from 550 kilometres up, whether a patch of farmland is just stressed enough to fail in a week, or whether a plume of methane is leaking […] https://exceptional.technology/arctus-aerospace-high-altitude-uav-earth-observation/ 2026-10-14 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/arctus-ax1-uav.jpg The Eye That Never Blinks: Inside Arctus Aerospace, the Bengaluru Startup Building India’s High-Altitude Data Fleet Arctus Aerospace is building high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft in Bengaluru — and selling the data, not the aircraft. Its AX1 tech demonstrator was built in 150 days; the full-scale platform targets 45,000 feet for 24 hours. https://exceptional.technology/skyroot-vikram-1-first-private-indian-orbital-rocket/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/skyroot-vikram-1-liftoff.jpg Skyroot: The Hyderabad Startup That Flew India’s First Private Orbital Rocket Reaching orbit has, for the entire commercial space age, belonged to a tiny club: SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and a handful of Chinese firms. On 18 July 2026, a Hyderabad startup muscled India into it — on its very first try. Vikram-1, Skyroot Aerospace’s orbital launch vehicle, lifted off from the First Launch Pad at the […] https://exceptional.technology/d-propulse-rotating-detonation-engine-rde/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/d-propulse-logo.png D-Propulse: The New Delhi Startup Firing India’s First Indigenous Rotating Detonation Engine A jet engine burns fuel in a steady flame and pushes the hot gas out the back. A rotating detonation engine detonates it instead — a continuous supersonic shockwave racing around a ring-shaped chamber, wringing more useful energy from the same fuel in a smaller, mechanically simpler machine. The physics has been stu... https://exceptional.technology/satleo-labs-tapas-1-thermal-imaging-payload-orbit/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/satleo-heatmap.webp SatLeo Labs: The Ahmedabad Startup Putting India’s First Private Thermal-Imaging Payload in Orbit India’s Earth-observation fleet can photograph the planet in extraordinary detail — but until now it has been nearly blind to the planet’s heat. Optical and multispectral satellites see what sunlight reflects; they miss the thermal infrared signature that reveals crop stress before leaves wilt, urban heat islands be... https://exceptional.technology/eon-space-labs-mira-502-gram-telescope-orbit/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/eon-mira-payload.jpg EON Space Labs: The Hyderabad Startup That Put a 502-Gram Telescope in Orbit A space telescope the weight of a small bottle of water is now circling the Earth — and it was designed and built in Hyderabad. EON Space Labs’ MIRA earth-observation payload rode to orbit aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission on October 1–2, 2026, one of 130 payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force ... https://exceptional.technology/space-zone-india-rhumi-twin-engine-restart/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/space-zone-india-rhumi-hybrid-rocket.jpg Space Zone India Restarts a Rocket Engine Mid-Flight Most rockets burn their engines exactly once: ignition at liftoff, cutoff when the propellant runs out. Restarting an engine in mid-air — cutting it, coasting, and lighting it again — is the capability that makes reusable boosters, multi-burn orbital stages and precision satellite deployments possible. From the Chen... https://exceptional.technology/the-eplane-company-india-first-electric-air-taxi/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/eplane-e200x-pt01-aircraft.jpg The ePlane Company: The Chennai Startup Building India’s First Electric Air Taxi India builds rockets that reach the Moon and satellites that watch its weather, but almost nothing it builds takes off with civilians inside — the country’s entire commercial aircraft fleet is imported. A Chennai startup founded by an IIT Madras aerospace professor is betting that the first truly Indian aircraft won... https://exceptional.technology/takeme2space-orbital-data-centre-india/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/takeme2space-moi-satellite-render.png TakeMe2Space: The Hyderabad Startup Building a Data Centre in Orbit Hyderabad startup TakeMe2Space is building India’s first orbital data centre — satellites that run AI compute in orbit instead of downlinking raw data. https://exceptional.technology/galaxeye-drishti-optosar-satellite-solar-storm/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/desktop-scaled.png The Satellite That Sees in Two Spectrums at Once — and the Solar Storm That Took It On May 3, 2026, a Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg, California, carrying a 190-kg satellite built by five IIT Madras engineers. Mission Drishti, from Bengaluru startup GalaxEye, was — the company says — the world’s first commercial satellite to carry a synthetic aperture radar and a seven-band multispectral image... https://exceptional.technology/saubha-aerial-systems-drone-parachute-recovery/ 2026-10-13 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/saubha-aerial-systems-net-catcher.jpg Saubha Aerial Systems: The Parachutes Saving India’s Drones From Falling Out of the Sky Every drone carries the same single point of failure: gravity. A snapped arm, a dead battery, a severed radio link — and an aircraft that took months to design becomes a very expensive hole in the ground. As India’s drone industry scales from defence trials to delivery corridors and commercial surveying, every new f... https://exceptional.technology/ideaforge-zolt-jam-proof-drone-army/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/zolt-3-clean.jpg ideaForge’s ZOLT: The Drone That Fights Through Jamming ideaForge’s ZOLT UAV flew through EW trials and won a ₹75-crore Army order — now it is growing into a family of long-range ISR and combat drones. https://exceptional.technology/endureair-sabal-drone-himalayas-army/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b4_09_featured.jpg EndureAir’s SABAL Drones: Supplying Our Troops in the Himalayas EndureAir’s SABAL-20 serves the Army’s Eastern Command in the Himalayas; the 200-kg SABAL-200, backed by a ₹30 cr grant, doesn’t exist yet. https://exceptional.technology/serendipity-space-drugs-orbit-manufacturing/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b4_07_featured.jpg Serendipity Space: The Bhubaneswar Startup Making Drugs in Orbit Serendipity Space, an 8-person startup, aims to crystallise drugs in orbit. A balloon test proved the hardware — the microgravity benefit remains unproven. https://exceptional.technology/dheya-det500-micro-turbojet-drone-engine/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b4_02_featured.jpg DET-500: The 5.5-kg Jet Engine Powering India’s High-Speed Drones Dheya’s DET-500 is a 5.5-kg micro-turbojet with 500+ test minutes and ₹43 cr in fresh funding — India’s bid for indigenous small gas-turbine capability. https://exceptional.technology/manastu-green-propellant-hydrazine-alternative/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b4_01_featured.jpg Manastu Space’s MS289: The Non-Toxic Propellant Replacing Hydrazine Manastu Space’s MS289 green propellant flew on ISRO’s POEM-4, logging 700+ seconds of firing. A non-toxic hydrazine alternative, space-tested. https://exceptional.technology/agnikul-agnite-3d-printed-rocket-engine/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b3_08_featured.webp Agnite: Agnikul’s “World’s Largest” 3D-Printed Rocket Engine Agnikul Cosmos test-fired Agnite, a single-piece 3D-printed semi-cryo booster engine, in March 2026. The company calls it the world’s largest of its kind. https://exceptional.technology/logixair-vtol-cargo-aircraft-flying-truck/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b3_07_featured.webp LogiXair’s 300-kg VTOL Cargo Aircraft: India’s “Flying Truck” Bet Hyderabad’s LogiXair is building a 300-kg hybrid-electric VTOL for middle-mile cargo. The aircraft exists as a funded plan, not a flying machine. https://exceptional.technology/reliance-rolls-royce-amca-fighter-engine/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b2_10_featured.jpg Reliance and Rolls-Royce’s AMCA Engine Gambit: India’s Bid for Fighter-Jet Propulsion Sovereignty Reliance and Rolls-Royce announced strategic intent to co-develop an indigenous AMCA fighter engine. What the deal is — and isn’t. https://exceptional.technology/spacefields-solid-rocket-motors/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b2_09_featured.jpg SpaceFields: The Bengaluru Startup Putting Solid Rocket Motors in India’s Missiles IISc-incubated SpaceFields went from student rockets to Navy-validated solid motors and a 120-acre propellant plant. Inside India’s private propulsion bet. https://exceptional.technology/astrobase-everest-ffsc-engine/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b2_08_featured.jpg EVEREST: The Bengaluru Startup Building India’s First Private Full-Flow Staged Combustion Engine Astrobase Space unveiled EVEREST, India’s first private full-flow staged combustion engine — 800 kN of LOX-methane thrust, awaiting its first hot-fire. https://exceptional.technology/thrustworks-rocket-igniter-1-crore/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b2_07_featured.jpg The ₹1-Crore Igniter: How a Pune Startup Out-Engineered a €9M European Rocket Programme A Pune startup built India’s first resonance-based rocket igniter for about ₹1 crore — a fraction of a €9M European programme. How Thrustworks did it. https://exceptional.technology/sagar-defence-matangi-uncrewed-vessel/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/b4_featured.jpg Matangi’s 1,500-km Ghost Voyage: How a Pune Startup Is Building India’s Crewless Naval Fleet In 2024 an uncrewed Indian vessel sailed 1,500 km with no one aboard. Behind Matangi: Sagar Defence, building India’s crewless naval fleet. https://exceptional.technology/munitions-india-limited-the-%e2%82%b930000-crore-ammunition-giant-teaming-up-with-a-rocket-startup/ 2026-10-12 monthly 0.8 https://exceptional.technology/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-237.png The ₹30,000 Crore Ammunition Giant Teaming Up With a Rocket Startup The ₹30,000 Crore Ammunition Giant Teaming Up With a Rocket Startup India’s defence industry has a new kind of partnership. On one side is a state-owned manufacturer with a very large order book and decades of ordnance know-how. On the other is a small, IISc-incubated startup that fires its own rocket motors. In Aug...