DeltaV’s Hybrid Bet: The 2017 Start-Up Supplying Turkey’s Lunar Propulsion
Hybrid rocket propulsion — solid fuel, liquid oxidiser — has spent most of its history as the technology that should have worked. It throttles, it shuts down and restarts, it is far safer to handle than a solid motor and far simpler than a liquid stage. What it has never reliably delivered is thrust density: the pressure to push a serious payload, from a package that fits a serious airframe.
That is the problem DeltaV Uzay Teknolojileri claims to have addressed, and the claim is now attached to flight hardware rather than a brochure.
The company
DeltaV was founded in 2017 and is based in Pendik, on the Asian side of Istanbul. It is a subsidiary of SSTEK, the technology holding structure associated with Turkey’s defence procurement establishment — which places it inside the national programme rather than alongside it. Its declared portfolio covers hybrid rocket motors, space propulsion systems and launch services. The company states that it has developed Turkey’s first cryogenic turbopump, a component that separates organisations that assemble propulsion from organisations that design it.
Two flights that changed the argument
The first milestone came in 2023 with SORS, DeltaV’s sounding rocket, which passed 100 km — the Kármán line — on a paraffin and liquid oxygen combination. Crossing 100 km with a hybrid is not a record in itself, but doing it with a production-intent motor rather than a laboratory article is a different matter.
The second is more significant. A two-stage hybrid system subsequently exceeded 200 km of altitude, which DeltaV and Turkish defence-sector bulletins describe as an altitude record for hybrid rocket motors. The second-stage Hybrid Propulsion System — HİS in its Turkish initials — is characterised as the first hybrid system to have been fired in space. Both descriptions originate with the company and the Turkish defence press; no independent international verification body has published a confirming record, and readers should weigh them accordingly.
What is not in dispute is the direction of travel. A firm that in 2017 did not exist has, within a decade, put propulsion hardware above 200 km and been assigned a role in a national lunar programme.
The lunar assignment
Under Turkey’s National Space Programme, the AYAP Moon research programme includes a hard-landing mission. DeltaV’s HİS is being developed for the lunar transfer phase of that mission, in cooperation with the Turkish Space Agency. That is a demanding application for a hybrid: it requires restart capability after a long coast, thermal management across the transfer, and throttle authority at the end of it.
Hybrid propulsion is, in fairness, well suited to precisely those requirements. Restart is where hybrids are structurally advantaged over solids, and simplicity is where they are advantaged over pressure-fed liquids. If the AYAP transfer stage flies as described, it will be one of the more interesting propulsion demonstrations of the decade — regardless of the mission’s outcome at the lunar surface.
The launch-services angle
DeltaV is not confining itself to sounding rockets and lunar stages. Under an agreement with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), satellites built by TUSAŞ are to be placed in orbit using DeltaV launch systems — a vertical arrangement pairing a national satellite manufacturer with a national launch provider. Europe’s small-launch sector has spent five years learning how difficult that transition is, and no delivery timetable has been published for the Turkish pairing.
The company exhibited its hybrid motors, space propulsion systems and engineering work at SAHA EXPO 2026.
What to watch, and what is unverified
- Whether an orbital-class vehicle follows the sounding-rocket line, and on what schedule.
- Whether the AYAP transfer stage completes qualification firing.
- Whether hybrid thrust density holds at the scale an orbital first stage demands — the regime where hybrids have historically struggled.
DeltaV’s headcount, revenue, test-cadence figures and the specific thrust and impulse values behind the “highest thrust density in the world” formulation are not available in verified open sources. Envanter Medya reports them as company statements only.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hybrid rocket motor?
A motor that combines a solid fuel grain with a liquid oxidiser. It can be throttled, shut down and restarted like a liquid engine, while remaining considerably simpler and safer to handle.
What altitude has DeltaV reached?
Its SORS sounding rocket passed 100 km in 2023, and a two-stage hybrid system subsequently exceeded 200 km — described by the company as an altitude record for hybrid propulsion.
What is AYAP?
AYAP is the Moon research programme within Turkey’s National Space Programme. DeltaV’s HİS hybrid propulsion system is being developed for the lunar transfer phase of its hard-landing mission.
Sources: DeltaV Uzay Teknolojileri corporate material; Turkish Armed Forces Foundation (TSKGV) defence-industry bulletin on the 200 km hybrid flight; SAHA Istanbul company register; SAHA EXPO 2026 exhibitor material; Turkish Space Agency AYAP programme descriptions; Envanter Medya company file.
