New Delhi: In a major leap for the Indian space manufacturing industry, a Lucknow-based company, Aerolloy Technologies, bagged the development and supply order from Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin to manufacture large superalloy investment casting for their BE-4 rocket engines. The component is being used on their heavy-lift, reusable rocket New Glenn.
Aerolloy Technologies is a subsidiary of PTC Industries Limited and a manufacturer of high-precision metal components and materials for critical and super-critical applications. The company said in a statement that it will produce large Nickel-based Superalloy housings and manifolds for Liquid Oxygen (LOX) high- and low-pressure systems for Blue Origin.
The Superalloy LOX housings and manifolds are ‘mission-critical components’, which directly impact engine performance, safety, and reusability of a launcher. The process of its manufacture is itself one of the most technically challenging aspects of the BE-4 propulsion system.
“These components operate under extreme thermal, chemical, and pressure environments, demanding tight dimensional control, complex internal geometries, and defect-free metallurgical integrity – a combination that only a handful of global foundries can reliably achieve at this scale,” the company said.
Also read: PSLV-C62 failure: What Indian start-ups say about trusting ISRO as a launch partner
‘A defining milestone’
BE-4 or Blue Engine 4 is a powerful, methane-fuelled liquid rocket engine. The engine powers its New Glenn rocket—named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth—which can carry more than 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO).
The launch vehicle is also designed to accommodate a variety of payloads and destinations to meet the broadest range of customer needs, and significantly reduce cost per launch.
Aerolloy said that a key enabler for this order was their Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM) furnace—an induction furnace which utilises electric currents to melt metal within a vacuum.
This facility allows the melting and processing of large superalloy housings under tightly controlled vacuum conditions, forming the metallurgical foundation for large, high-integrity investment castings required in advanced propulsion systems.
“Blue Origin’s selection of Aerolloy for BE-4 engine hardware marks a defining milestone in our entry into space propulsion systems. The BE-4 is among the most advanced engines in operation today, and New Glenn’s performance requirements set an exceptionally high bar for quality and reliability,” said Sachin Agarwal, chairperson and managing director of PTC Industries.
PTC is not new in the Indian aerospace and defence circles. In early January, it had successfully bagged a project with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)