Chinese Private Space

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CAS Space crewed sub-orbital spacecraft

 

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Private launch company DeepBlueAerospace competed landing leg test for its Nebula-1 rocket.

 

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Private launch company DeepBlueAerospace competed landing leg test for its Nebula-1 rocket.
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Private launch company DeepBlueAerospace competed landing leg test for its Nebula-1 rocket.
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Private launch company Land Space's methalox Zhuque-2 rocket

 

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Private launch company Land Space's methalox Zhuque-2 rocket
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Private launch company Space Epoch to cooperate on new MEO constellation

Andrew Jones May 30, 2024

HELSINKI — Chinese rocket maker Space Epoch has entered into a strategic partnership with satellite operator Shifang Xinglian to develop a constellation of medium Earth orbit satellites.

Top officials from Beijing Jianyuan Technology Co., Ltd., also known as Space Epoch, or Sepoch, and Shifang Xinglian (Suzhou) Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., (Shifang Xinglian) signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing May 23.

Both parties will leverage their strengths to cooperate deeply in emerging technologies such as medium Earth orbit (MEO) relay satellite launches, space-based measurement, and control support for new commercial rockets, aiming to build a commercial aerospace industry chain and foster the development of commercial aerospace, a joint statement read.

Advantages of MEO satellites include a good balance between the broad coverage of geostationary orbit (GEO) and the low latency of low Earth orbit (LEO). These also require fewer satellites to provide global coverage than LEO constellations.

The agreement has been forged at a relatively early stage for both companies. However the intent further illustrates a proliferation of actors engaged in launch services and constellation plans in China. The development comes amid strong political backing for commercial space in the country.

Space Epoch is developing medium and large fully reusable rockets akin to SpaceX’s Starship but on a smaller scale. Their flagship project is the 64-meter-tall XZY-1 rocket which is to be capable of launching 6,500 kilograms to a 1,100-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The launch vehicle will use thin-walled stainless steel and is designed for multiple reuses.

Space Epoch secured a 200 million yuan (US$27.6m) late last year. It has already made progress on testing 3.0- and 4.0-meter-diameter propellant tanks and conducted tests using methane-liquid oxygen engines supplied by commercial engine maker Jiuzhou Yunjian.

The company has partnered with Alibaba to explore the use of reusable rockets for point-to-point transportation for parcel deliveries. Space Epoch also claims to support national plans for space tourism, space station construction, deep space exploration, asteroid defense and other markets.

Shifang Xinglian meanwhile was founded in 2022 and received undisclosed backing from notable private equity and investment firm Zhuoyuan Capital. It has provided tracking and control for a number of commercial satellite launches

The company says it aims to build and operate China’s first MEO relay satellite system, focusing on integrated space-ground measurement, control, and data relay services for various platforms.

Its backer Zhuoyuan Capital also recently invested in Deep Blue Aerospace. DBA is another launcher service provider which this month announced a funding round worth tens of millions of dollars in B-round funding.

Earlier this month, in a related development, another company, the Shanghai government and Tsinghua University-backed Tsingshen Tech launched China’s first MEO broadband satellite. China is also planning to build LEO broadband megaconstellations, adding to communications assets already in GEO.

Both Space Epoch and Shifang Xinglian could play a role within a wider, national effort to expand China’s commercial space industry. The Chinese central government has recently identified the commercial space sector as a key strategic industry. In response, new policies are being developed and implemented at both provincial and city levels to support the growth of commercial space enterprises. Additionally, the expansion of a new commercial spaceport is underway to meet the increasing demand for launch services.

China is also backing megaconstellations which could provide commercial launch service providers with contracts with which to establish themselves.

 

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Private launch company DeepBlueAerospace competed landing leg test for its Nebula-1 rocket.
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Nebula-1 is a kerolox fueled rocket with a payload capacity of 2t to LEO.

 

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Construction work of No.2 launch pad of China's sixth launch site exclusive to private launches in Hainan island will be completed by the end of June 2024.

 

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Specifications of Orienspace LOX/RP-1 fueled rocket Gravity-2
Maiden flight: Dec 2025
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Private launch company Space Pioneer has announced a new round of funding of ￥1.5 billion Yuan(~$200 milllion dollars) for development of the Tianlong-3 rocket. The funds will be used for production of the liquid rocket Tianlong 3, which is a medium lift LOX/RP-1 fueled rocket with a payload capacity of 17t to LEO.

 

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Private launch company Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 rocket's 14th orbital flight today

 

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Private launch company Space Pioneer has announced a new round of funding of ￥1.5 billion Yuan(~$200 milllion dollars) for development of the Tianlong-3 rocket. The funds will be used for production of the liquid rocket Tianlong 3, which is a medium lift LOX/RP-1 fueled rocket with a payload capacity of 17t to LEO.
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Space Pioneer raises $207 million for reusable rocket

Space Pioneer raises $207 million for reusable rocket Chinese commercial company Space Pioneer has secured fresh funding for its reusable Tianlong-3 rocket, targeting launch contracts for megaconstellation plans.

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Space Pioneer raises $207 million for reusable rocket
Andrew Jones June 6, 2024

HELSINKI — Chinese commercial company Space Pioneer has secured fresh funding for its reusable Tianlong-3 rocket, targeting launch contracts for megaconstellation plans.

Space Pioneer—full name Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd—announced the funding worth more than 1.5 billion yuan ($207 million) June 6. At least 15 investors participated in the funding, including a mix of private equity and state-linked investment vehicles.

These include state-linked Wuxi Chuangfa, CCTV Fund, CITIC Securities Investment, Hefei Ruicheng and SDIC Taikang, and private equity and investment firms Bohua Capital Management, Guoyu Gaohua, Deyue Investment and more.

The funding round was termed “C+,” as with another round secured in October last year. That round raised “several hundred millions of yuan.”

The funding will go towards the first launch of the new Tianlong-3 rocket, as well as its mass production and conversion for reusability. It will also be used for mass production of the smaller Tianlong-2.

Tianlong-3 (“Sky Dragon-3”) is a two-stage kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket. Nine Tianhuo-12 engines power the first stage, which will be made reusable in the future. The 71-meter-long rocket will have a diameter of 3.8 meters.

Space Pioneer states that the rocket will be capable of lifting 17 tons of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO), or 14 tons to 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. It aims to launch 30 Tianlong-3 rockets per year.

The company is planning a static fire test of the Tianlong-3 first stage by the end of June. A first launch will follow in the coming months.

Tianlong-3 is by far the largest commercial rocket close to launch in China and would provide the country with greatly-increased capacity for launch, including batches of satellites. It would also be nationally second only to the expendable Long March 5B (25 tons) terms of capacity to LEO.

The new financing takes Space Pioneer’s fund raising to more than four billion yuan ($552 million). It makes the firm possibly the most well-funded Chinese commercial launch company.

The funding also demonstrates the backing potentially available to launch companies in China, despite more than 10 companies working on a range of commercial launchers, including reusable rockets.

China’s central government recently cited commercial space as an important future industry. Cities and provinces are now drawing up and enacting policies to support growth and innovation in the sector. This is part of a wider national strategy to build a world-leading satellite Internet system and boost the country’s comprehensive space power.

Constellation launches
Space Pioneer says it will contribute to the construction of China’s national satellite internet project. The country has three registered plans for 10,000-plus-satellite constellations. These are the national “Guowang” project and the Shanghai-backed G60 Starlink constellation. The Honghu-3 constellation, plans for which were recently filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by a firm linked to commercial rocket maker Landspace, has also emerged.

China sees the establishment of megaconstellations as a national security issue, securing finite frequencies for use in LEO, as well as orbital planes, and responding to Starlink. The country’s military has claimed that SpaceX has intended for Starlink to be used for military purposes in the wake of Ukraine’s defense against the invasion of Russia.

China is constructing a commercial launch center near Wenchang, Hainan island. This will facilitate a range of growing number of commercial launchers. China needs to boost its already growing launch cadence to get the constellations off the ground.

Space Pioneer also previously stated plans to construct a launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China.

Space Pioneer appears to be a leader among a crowded field of commercial launch vehicle developers in China. It became the first such company in China to reach orbit with a liquid rocket in April 2023 with Tianlong-2.

Deep Blue Aerospace last month announced “hundreds of millions of yuan” in funding. It plans its first orbital launch and an attempt to land the first stage for the second half of the year.

Company	Rocket Name	Rocket Type	Key Features/Notes
iSpace	Hyperbola-3	Methane-liquid oxygen	Payload capacity of 13,700 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO); first flight planned for 2025.
Landspace	Zhuque-3	Methalox	Payload capacity up to 21,300 kg to LEO. Stainless steel. first flight planned for 2025.
Galactic Energy	Pallas-1	Kerosene-liquid oxygen	Payload capacity of 8,000 kg to LEO.
CAS Space	Kinetica 2	Kerolox	Payload capacity of 7,800 kg to 500 km SSO.
Deep Blue Aerospace	Nebula-1	Kerolox	Payload capacity of 2,000 kg to LEO. First flight planned in late 2024.
Space Pioneer	Tianlong-3	Kerolox	Comparable to Falcon 9 in launch capability; plans for a reusable first stage.
Space Epoch	XZY-1	Methalox	7,000 kg to 1,100 km. Stainless steel. First flight in 2025.
Orienspace	Gravity-2	Kerolox	21,300 kg to LEO. First flight in 2025; plans for a reusable first stage.
CASC	Various	Various	Working on reusable rockets including a new-generation human-rated launcher, spaceplane, and Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher.

Non-exhaustive list of planned Chinese reusable rockets (Credit: Andrew Jones/SpaceNews).

Space Pioneer raises $207 million for reusable rocket

Space Pioneer raises $207 million for reusable rocket Chinese commercial company Space Pioneer has secured fresh funding for its reusable Tianlong-3 rocket, targeting launch contracts for megaconstellation plans.

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Private launch company Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 rocket's 14th orbital flight today
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Private launch company SPACE PIONEER completed the assembly of their first Tianlong-3 booster in Jiangsu and is transporting it to Henan for a static fire test. The maiden launch is planned for September