China and Private Industry Space Exploration

[selvaarchi]

This year, the Chinese "Commercial space sector poised for takeoff".

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/201...a9951844.shtml

China's private space sector raised plenty of money last year despite the chilly investment climate, thanks to national support for the industry and a changing environment.

In 2018, three rocket start-ups - OneSpace, LandSpace and iSpace, also known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology - held a total of eight rounds of fundraising, each raising 700 million yuan ($101.95 million) to 800 million yuan.

On Wednesday, iSpace said it had secured its A-plus financing round last September from investors led by CDH Investments, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times.

The start-up said it plans to complete an orbital mission with its SQX-1Z rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Northwest China's Gansu Province, in the first half of this year.

More on what some of the startups are doing.

https://gbtimes.com/chinese-launch-s...et-hover-tests

Two of China's first entrants into the new commercial space launch scene have carried out tests related to engines and rockets for respective planned future orbital launch vehicles in recent days.

Last week Beijing-based Landspace test-fired a gas generator for its Tianque-12 (TQ-12) methalox rocket engine, an 80-tonne thrust engine designed to power the (ZQ-2) liquid methane and liquid oxygen launch vehicle, the company announced (in Chinese) on Monday.

The test was carried out at a new 'intelligent manufacturing facility' in Huzhou, where the test-firing of the combustion chamber for the TQ-12 engine was also performed in September last year.

[selvaarchi]

Japanese view on China's space-startup boom and what Japan plans in that area.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Bus...vernment-boost

China is ramping up a campaign to nurture space startups in an attempt to solidify its technological base and grab the lead in the emerging sector of small satellites and low-cost rocket launches.

Among the highest-profile startups is Shanghai-based LinkSure Network. Founded in 2013, LinkSure is trying to build a constellation of 272 satellites by 2026 to provide satellite-based internet service around the world, with the first satellite set for launch later this year. The company's core members come from a Chinese space agency and the central government.

Space startups are burgeoning as China embarks on a strategy of military and civilian cooperation initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2015. The small satellite market is an especially attractive target for them, having become more accessible as rockets and satellites grow smaller and smarter. U.S. companies such as OneWeb and SpaceX are already planning to deploy thousands of small satellites to blanket the Earth with broadband connectivity.

[selvaarchi]

Interview with Essential Capital, one of the early Chinese VC firm looking at the Space industry in China.

https://china-aerospace.blog/2019/01...pace-in-china/

Essential Capital (a.k.a 元航资本 in Chinese) is a Chinese VC firm founded in 2015 and based in Beijing. Essential Capital considers itself an early-middle stage investor, with a major focus on “hard tech”.

As an early mover within the VC world into the burgeoning Chinese space industry, the company’s founders gave some interesting insights on the topic in an interview to the Chinese media Iyiyou 亿欧 in December 2018 (see [1]). This article sums up the main takeaways and adds further comment along the way.

"FutureAerospace’s China Commercial Space Investment Report 2018: Highlights"

https://china-aerospace.blog/2019/01...18-highlights/

2018 has been a crazy year for Chinese commercial space, and 2019 promises to be even crazier. iSpace raised 110 million RMB on January 3 [1], Minospace raised an estimated 20 million RMB on January 15 [2] , and as I am writing these lines (26/01/2019), Changguang Satellite (CGSTL) just raised a whooping 250 million RMB in an angel round [3]. This has literally smashed January 2018’s record (283 million RMB raised). Before 2019 goes any further, let’s take some time to reflect on investments in Chinese space tech in 2018.

[selvaarchi]

Yet another Chinese company has entered into the space launch business. It is also going after reuse ability but have taken a different approach.

https://china-aerospace.blog/2019/03...cher-start-up/

Yet another new Chinese launcher start-up has been revealed and put into the spotlight this week: Space Transportation (which is a rough translation of its Chinese name: 凌空天行). The company was actually founded back in August 2018, but had been keeping a low profile ever since. However last Thursday, Source Code Capital (源码资本) published on its WeChat official account that “it had provided Space Transportation Co. several tens of millions of RMB” (1 USD = approx. 6.71 RMB) in an angel round to fund the start-up’s ambitious development agenda. This news has rapidly propagated through the Chinese financial media over the past few days, and is bound to reach English readers soon (including through this article!).

[selvaarchi]

China to launch its biggest solid-propellant carrier rocket.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/NPC_CP...t_74569705.htm

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp will soon launch the nation's biggest solid-propellant carrier rocket and is working on new models that will be even larger and stronger, a project insider said.

Hu Shengyun, a senior rocket designer at the CASIC Fourth Academy in Wuhan, Hubei province, which develops and builds the Kuaizhou series, said the maiden mission of the Kuaizhou 11 will take place soon at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.

He spoke to China Daily on the sidelines of the ongoing second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing as he attends the national legislature's annual meeting.

[selvaarchi]

Answers from China's OneSpace to questions by SPACENEWS on eve of China's 1st private commercial launch.

https://spacenews.com/qa-chinas-ones...aunch-attempt/

On March 27, Chinese launch startup OneSpace is set to attempt its first orbital launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

OneSpace is one of a number of commercial rocket companies that have emerged following a late 2014 Chinese government policy allowing private capital into areas of the space sector and is now looking to become the first such firm to achieve orbit.

Ahead of the launch of the OS-M1/’Chongqing · Liangjiang Star’ four-stage solid rocket OneSpace representatives responded to a series of questions on the imminent launch, the company’s ambitions, the nascent Chinese commercial space sector and more.

[Swift]

Not yet for OneSpace

spacenews.com

OneSpace of China failed to become the first private launch firm to place a satellite in orbit after loss of its OS-M1 solid launch vehicle Wednesday.

Launch of the OS-M1 four-stage rocket, also named ‘Chongqing · Liangjiang Star,’ took place at 05:39 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

Amateur footage from the launch site shared on a Chinese social media platform indicates loss of control of the launch vehicle shortly after first stage separation around one minute after launch.

OneSpace was still investigating the cause of the launch failure at press time.

[selvaarchi]

Not yet for OneSpace

spacenews.com

But still very much in the race.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/201...y4088213.shtml

China's private rocket launch sector has been striving to expand its presence in the nation's burgeoning commercial space market despite recent setbacks.

Shu Chang, CEO of OneSpace Technology, a space-focused startup based in Beijing, said his company is determined to continue with its research and development of carrier rockets and will also continue fulfilling launch schedules this year.

OneSpace encountered a major setback on Wednesday as the company's first attempt to launch a carrier rocket for an orbital mission failed because of technical problems.

"We will endeavor to launch another OS-M carrier rocket, as well as two to three OS-X suborbital rockets before the end of this year," Shu said late Wednesday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, where the first OS-M rocket mission was undertaken.

"I accept today's failure," he said. "Other solid-propellant carrier rockets before ours also have had setbacks in their development, but all of them passed through hard times and eventually succeeded. Explorations in science and technology have successes and failures. We will never flinch or quit."

[selvaarchi]

Robert Zubrin's interview in China is titled "Rocket Scientist Robert Zubrin on Why China Should Go to Mars" but the 1st part of the interview was on China's young private startups.

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/10038...uld-go-to-mars

Zubrin, a talkative 67-year-old, is excited by developments in China’s aerospace industry — particularly the crop of young private startups positioning themselves as challengers to established American rocketeers like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its competitor, Blue Origin. During his visit, one such company, LinkSpace, successfully test-launched a reusable rocket prototype in eastern China’s Shandong province, an achievement Zubrin describes as “like a 7-year-old composing a symphony.” Another, OneSpace, attempted to launch a payload-carrying rocket into the Earth’s orbit, but failed — a sign of the trial-and-error approach that characterizes China’s nascent space companies.

Sixth Tone later sat down with Zubrin in Beijing to discuss China’s spacefaring companies, the country’s lunar and Mars missions, and the future of the space race. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

[selvaarchi]

China's LinkSpace is making progress with its reusable rocket.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/201...f7884918.shtml

China's private rocket company LinkSpace successfully launched a reusable rocket in east China's Shandong Province on Friday. The RLV-T5 rocket flew to a height of 40 meters and then safely landed, in 30 seconds.

On March 27, the company finished its first low-altitude launch at a height of 20 meters.

[selvaarchi]

In the NASAspaceflight forum, report of a test flight of a reusable winged suborbital tech demonstrator rocket in China.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/in...msg1939333#new

Chinese launch startup 'Space Transportation' today carried out a test flight of a reusable winged suborbital tech demonstrator rocket with a mass of 3,700 kg. Named Jiageng-1, it was jointly developed with Xiamen University.

[selvaarchi]

In the NASAspaceflight forum, report of a test flight of a reusable winged suborbital tech demonstrator rocket in China.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/in...msg1939333#new

More details here.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20190...2260b7f9b.html

China's Xiamen University launched and recovered its first rocket Tuesday, in northwest China's desert.

The Jiageng-I rocket, jointly developed by Xiamen University and Beijing-based company Space Transportation, has a total length of 8.7 meters, a wingspan of 2.5 meters and a take-off mass of 3,700 kg.

The reusable rocket traveled at a maximum altitude of 26.2 km and was recovered at the designated landing site.

The joint flight was to test the performance of the dual waverider forebody configuration designed by the university's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and to verify the rocket recovery and reuse technology.

[selvaarchi]

China's private space companies are on the move.

https://spacenews.com/landspace-ispa...new-launchers/

[QUOTEChinese startup Linkspace succeeded with a vertical takeoff and landing test late last month on the same day fellow private launch firm OneSpace failed to reach orbit with its OS-m rocket. Also that week, two other Chinese companies declared success with engine tests as they push to develop new launch vehicles.

Linkspace Aerospace Technology Group, a firm which has focused on developing a reusable launch vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and vertical landing since its founding in 2014, carried out on March 27 a low-altitude, untethered launch and landing test of a 8.1-meter-tall, 1.5-metric ton tech demonstrator rocket.][/QUOTE]

[publiusr]

I'd like to see them try something different--like this:
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/0...ccess2019.html

[selvaarchi]

Watch LinkSpace launch an land their rocket. Think SpaceX but on a much smaller scale.

https://www.scmp.com/video/china/300...iny-satellites

China makes everything cheaper, including rockets and satellites these days. The field of private rocket manufacturers is getting crowded with over 15 entrepreneurs working on affordable – and in some cases reusable – mini rockets and small commercial satellites offering services such as high-speed internet for aircrafts. Think SpaceX on a smaller scale.

[selvaarchi]

LandSpace is making progress in developing its 80-tonne thrust liquid oxygen-methane engine.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/201..._138040377.htm

A Chinese company has assembled an 80-tonne thrust liquid oxygen-methane engine in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The TQ-12 engine, independently developed by private rocket-maker LandSpace over the past two years, is a new generation power system for carrier rockets. Its main components, the thrust chamber, gas generator, turbopump and valve have passed tests.

The TQ-12 has a lower servo motor load and engine wobble range. Its integrated design can reduce both components quantity and cost.

[selvaarchi]

Two commercial companies have tried launching a rocket to space. Both failed. Now a 3rd company is to try it in June.

The article also gives us updates on the status of the other Chinese commercial companies.

https://spacenews.com/chinas-ispace-...in-early-june/

Launch firm iSpace in early June will attempt to become the first Chinese private company to place a satellite in orbit, following failed launches by two competitors.

Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, will launch an unnamed payload using a Hyperbola-1 four-stage rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, according to a company senior official.

[selvaarchi]

"Private space firms rapidly growing in China".

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1150080.shtml

China had 141 registered commercial space companies in 2018, 90 percent of which are private, according to a report, and experts said that private commercial space companies have experienced stable development in recent years but lack more talent.

Of the 141 Chinese commercial space companies, 36 are satellite manufacturers, 22 satellite launching companies, 39 satellite operators and 44 satellite application companies. They cover the industrial chain space, according to a report Futureaerospace, a Chinese industry think tank, released on its WeChat account on Tuesday.

Zeng Zhiyuan, a senior analyst at Futureaerospace, told the Global Times on Wednesday that commercial space companies include private and state-owned ones.

[selvaarchi]

Most of the reports of Chinese commercial space companies are about rockets being built to send small satellites into space. Landspace has assembled a methalox engine which will be capable to puting 2,000 kilograms into Sun-synchronous orbit.

https://spacenews.com/landspace-asse...al-agreements/

Chinese private launch firm LandSpace has completed assembly of a liquid methane-liquid oxygen rocket engine for its new Zhuque-2 launch vehicle.

Assembly of the 80-ton thrust Tianque-12 methalox engine was completed at a manufacturing base in Huzhou, eastern China, following a successful power pack test in March.

The engine benefits from a modular and integrated design, according to a May 6 Landspace news release, helping to reduce the number of components and reduce costs. A hot fire test is expected before the end of June.

[selvaarchi]

LandSpace is making progress in developing its 80-tonne thrust liquid oxygen-methane engine.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/201..._138040377.htm

Now it has tested it

http://www.landspace.com/news?id=1036

The full system hot firing for “TQ-12”, the first 80t-thrust-level LOX+LCH4 LRE in China, was successfully conducted in Huzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Factory of LandSpace. “TQ-12”, as the world’s third model of LOX+LCH4 LRE, is developed independently by LandSpace.



“TQ-12” engine has been carried out four times hot firing test runs in this week, with the longest run-time about 20 seconds. The stable and rapid initial start and shutting down of the engine, along with relative appropriate parameters in test run period, manifests that the performance of the engine meets the qualifications.

[selvaarchi]

What I had not realised was that the liquid oxygen-methane engine that LandSpace is developing is also used by two other well known companies - SpaceX's Raptor and Blue Origin's BE-4.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20...2260bc8bd.html

A company in China has become the third in the world, after two others in the United States, to have developed a new type of rocket engine at the cutting edge of space propulsion, its maker said.

LandSpace, a private startup in Beijing, announced on Friday that its TQ-12 methane rocket engine successfully underwent a 20-second trial run at the company's test facility in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. It is the world's third high-performance methane engine after SpaceX's Raptor and Blue Origin's BE-4.

The engines use liquid methane as a fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. They are reusable and are central to the development of reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX and Blue Origin, both space giants in the US, have allocated considerable resources to the research and development of such engines.

Another report on the development from spacenews.

https://spacenews.com/landspace-asse...al-agreements/

Mike Gruntman, a professor of astronautics at the University of Southern California, told SpaceNewsthat the TQ-12 engine development was a ‘big deal’, demonstrating that China has, “accumulated a critical mass in rocket technology and [is] capable of embarking on developments where they are blazing the trail rather than reproducing what had been demonstrated earlier.”

Gruntman states that a large methane-LOX engine was developed and qualified in the USSR in 1980s, but never flown, while Blue Origin’s BE-4 will soon be completed.

“Chinese methane-LOX engines will be part of a selected group who can, and soon will have, done it”, Gruntman states, signaling a mature program and broad capabilities.

[selvaarchi]

China's growing commercial sector will now have to follow new Chinese commercial launch sector regulations.

https://spacenews.com/chinese-commer...lans-unveiled/

China has released a set of rules to guide the development of launch vehicles in the growing commercial sector as companies continue to progress and new actors emerge.

The document outlines rules for the research, development, testing of launch vehicles, safety, confidentiality and export control, interaction with launch sites, dealing with propellants, as well as listing supporting laws and regulations for China’s space activities.

The rules also clarify what qualifications are required by commercial aerospace enterprises, the scope of business, as well as what support may be obtained from the government, and underlines the role of the civil-military integration national strategy in fostering development in the sector.

[selvaarchi]

"Chinese rocket start-up aims at 'SpaceX dominance'"

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/201...v5570467.shtml

Beijing-based private rocket start-up Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology Co has made a breakthrough in its "Pallas" medium liquid-propellant rocket, a step closer to the firm's goal of forging a Chinese version of the Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by U.S. spaceflight company SpaceX.

China's innovative private rocket start-ups have injected new impetus into the domestic space industry, but more efforts are needed for them to catch up with their U.S. counterparts that have been growing for nearly two decades, industry analysts told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The gas generator, which helps provide thrust to the rocket's 40-ton engine that is powered by reusable liquid oxygen and kerosene, has completed seven ignition tests over the weekend, with an accumulated operation time of 380 seconds, according to Galactic Energy. The maximum single operation time lasted 100 seconds.

The company started developing the main rocket engine for the Pallas in December 2018, and it is the first Chinese rocket with engines that run on reusable liquid oxygen and kerosene.

[selvaarchi]

We have a successful liftoff. Congratulations to i-Space, a Beijing-based space startup founded by a group of Chinese rocket researchers previously working for State-owned enterprises,

http://www.ecns.cn/news/2019-07-25/d...q8699784.shtml

Carrying the high hopes of China's private space sector, the mission's success is considered a landmark achievement by industry observers. It demonstrated that after previous failed attempts, a private company in China is now capable of conducting an orbital launch, a requirement for any serious newcomer in the space industry.

Developed and produced by i-Space, a Beijing-based space startup founded by a group of Chinese rocket researchers previously working for State-owned enterprises, the three-stage SQX-1 is mainly propelled by solid fuel. It has a liftoff weight of 42 metric tons and a diameter of 1.4 m.

The rocket's launch capacity allows it to transport satellites with a total weight of 500 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit 500 km above the Earth, according to the company.

Designers at i-Space described the SQX-1 as the most powerful carrier rocket ever built by a private company in China.

[selvaarchi]

Andrew Jones on China's historic private sector launch as well as status on the other commercial Chinese players.

https://spacenews.com/chinese-ispace...sector-launch/

While preparations for launch were ongoing at Jiuquan, other Chinese NewSpace claimed progress. All launch vehicles sent to the launchpad by Chinese commercial companies have so far used solid propellant, many of these are working on larger, liquid propellant launchers with reusable first stages.

Landspace, another of the first wave of Chinese private launch companies along with OneSpace and Linkspace, has been making progress with development of liquid methane-liquid oxygen engines for its two-stage Zhuque-2 (Vermillion Bird-2).

[selvaarchi]

We have a successful liftoff. Congratulations to i-Space, a Beijing-based space startup founded by a group of Chinese rocket researchers previously working for State-owned enterprises,

http://www.ecns.cn/news/2019-07-25/d...q8699784.shtml

After its success, iSpace is now planning up to 8 commercial launches next year.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKCN1UQ0I9

Beijing-based startup iSpace is planning up to eight commercial rocket launches next year, after last week becoming China’s first privately funded firm to put a satellite into orbit, its executives told Reuters.

[selvaarchi]

Linkspace is making progress developing reusable rockets. Last test got to a height of 300 meters before landing at a predesignated spot.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/201...r7045688.shtml

Chinese private space startup Linkspace on Saturday successfully completed the third vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test of a rocket, taking a step further in its development of a recyclable orbital rocket.

The rocket, named RLV-T5 (NewLine Baby), blasted off at 10:35 am Beijing time at Linkspace's launch base in Lenghu Town, Yuya City, northwest China's Qinghai Province.

It reached a new height of 300 meters before landing steadily and accurately at the designated area with little deviation. The whole process lasted for 50 seconds.

[selvaarchi]

"Who’s Investing in China’s NewSpace? "

https://china-aerospace.blog/2019/08...inas-newspace/

Space industry observers are generally aware that a very significant amount of investment has been pouring into China’s New Space, which consists currently of anything between 50 to 100 companies depending on the definition of “NewSpace”. In 2018 alone, 2.1 billion RMB was invested in space startups. But where is this capital coming from? Which VCs are the backbone of China’s NewSpace investors?

FutureAerospace, a Beijing-based investor and consultancy, recently published its Commercial Space Investment Race report, giving some answers to the aforementioned questions. Below are the main highlights, that I have translated and commented.

[selvaarchi]

China's private space industry is evolving faster, than most gave them credit to.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chin...space-industry

In early August, a rocket took off on its third-ever test, reaching a height of around 300 metres and hovering there for a minute before returning to Earth, completely intact. But this reusable rocket wasn’t owned by SpaceX or Blue Origin. It was developed by a Chinese startup called LinkSpace.

Since 2014, when the Chinese government gave the green light to private companies to operate in the space sector, more and more startups have been popping up. Now, there are around 100 of them, up from just 30 in 2018. Welcome to the booming world of China’s private space industry.

[selvaarchi]

"Will LandSpace be China’s SpaceX?"

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3787/1\\

On July 25, a Chinese NewSpace company, Interstellar Glory (also known as i-Space or Space Honor), made a successful orbital launch, sending two smallsats into a 300-kilometer orbit. Before that, two other companies, LandSpace and OneSpace, made similar but unsuccessful attempts in October 2018 and March 2019. Interstellar Glory got the glory by winning the race about the first commercial space launch in China. But this was not end of the race. Instead, it marks beginning of a new race: to launch a liquid-propellant medium-class launcher that is able to meet most of the market demand. A small solid launcher is just a ticket to space, while a medium liquid launcher is the key to win the market.