Astrobase Unveils EVEREST, an 800 kN Full‑Flow Methane Rocket Engine

Overview

• Astrobase unveiled EVEREST on Friday as a fully integrated full-flow staged combustion engine that uses liquid oxygen and methane and is rated at about 800 kilonewtons of thrust.
• The company has not yet done a full-scale hot-fire; it plans to begin ground hot-fire tests in the coming months at its Anantapur test site as the next step toward qualification.
• Astrobase says it will build and fire roughly 20 EVEREST engines before a first orbital attempt and is targeting a maiden flight in December 2028 if tests and qualification go as planned.
• The startup reports more than 70 percent domestic content, support from IN-SPACe’s Technology Adoption Fund, and a staged industrial plan to scale production to dozens of engines per year to raise annual launch capacity.
• EVEREST joins a very small global group pursuing high‑thrust full‑flow staged combustion; SpaceX’s Raptor remains the only FFSC engine flown to orbit so far, so repeated testing and vehicle integration are needed to prove reusability and operational reliability.