Meet the 25-Year-Old Building India's First Private Reusable Spaceplane

A Childhood Dream Turned Aerospace Startup

Sree Supranayi Kanamarlapudi dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child. She kept that dream alive, eventually earning a B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering. Most 25-year-olds are just finding their footing in a career. Kanamarlapudi is building a spaceplane.

She has founded a spacetech startup, AnduraX, in Vijayawada, that is well on its way to building the country's first re-entry space vehicle capable of maneuvering in low Earth orbit and retrieving niche pharmaceutical or semiconductor products manufactured in space. "By the time I turned 25, that vision fuelled my desire to enter the space industry," she says.

After three years at a reusable launch vehicle startup, she founded her own company with her former colleague, Nirvik Choudhury, as a co-founder. The vehicle they're building is called ARES — and it may play a pivotal role in India's most ambitious space project yet.

The Spaceplane That Could Supply India's Space Station

AnduraX is developing ARES, a reusable re-entry vehicle designed to support microgravity research, in-space manufacturing, and payload return missions. The goal is straightforward but technically staggering: send payloads to orbit, let them spend time in the zero-gravity environment of space, then bring them safely back to Earth — not by splashing into the ocean, but by landing on a runway like an airplane.

ARES is designed to carry up to 100 kilograms of payload to orbit. The timing couldn't be more strategic. The Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) is a planned modular space station to be constructed by India and operated by ISRO. The space station would weigh 52 tonnes and maintain an orbit of approximately 400 kilometres above the Earth, where astronauts could stay for 3–6 months. AnduraX's roadmap coincides with India's broader space ambitions, including the planned launch of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station's first module in 2028, signaling a national push toward reusable orbital systems and commercial low-Earth orbit infrastructure.

"The biggest bottleneck in making space the next manufacturing hub is logistics — specifically, return logistics," Kanamarlapudi points out. That insight is what makes AnduraX's pitch so compelling. Getting things into space is hard. Getting them back safely, reliably, and cheaply? That's the unsolved problem that could unlock an entirely new space economy.

A Critical Test Already Completed

The ADM-01 test was conducted from an altitude of 25,000 metres using a high-altitude balloon and validated critical aspects of guidance, navigation, control, and precision landing systems. It marks India's first high-altitude drop test for a reusable spaceplane, a significant step toward orbital re-entry capability. A number of low-altitude tests were already conducted in May 2026 in preparation for the high-altitude balloon drop campaign.

The mission generated crucial flight data to strengthen AnduraX's guidance, navigation, and control architecture as well as its return capability. Rather than relying on parachutes and ocean splashdowns — the old way of doing things — the company aims to build a vehicle that can carry payloads to orbit, support microgravity research and in-space manufacturing, and return them safely via low-G re-entry and runway-style landings.

Ankit Anand, Founding Partner at Riceberg Ventures and Co-Founder of KickSky Space Lab, put it plainly: "As space travel becomes more frequent, it is unrealistic to imagine a future where every spacecraft or payload simply drops back to Earth. The future of space transportation requires smoother, low-G re-entry and aircraft-style runway landings, and this is the problem AnduraX is solving."

Part of a Rapidly Maturing Private Space Ecosystem

AnduraX has received support from government-backed initiatives including NIDHI PRAYAS, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, and MeitY TIDE. The company has also been incubated at AIC Banasthali, SRiX, and the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. AnduraX is eyeing a piece of the growing global reusable launch vehicle and re-entry capability market, projected to become a $32 billion opportunity by 2034.

The ADM-01 mission represents more than a technical demonstration; it is a proof of concept for India's private space sector, showcasing the ability of start