Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Without further ado, the news update from the week of 3 - 9 May.
1) China’s Long March 5B first stage re-enters Earth’s atmosphere and (seemingly) lands in the Indian Ocean
10 days or so ago, China launched a Long March 5B rocket to put into orbit the core module of the Chinese Space Station. As mentioned last week, this rocket is a beast: it weighs over 800t at lift-off, can put up to 25t of payload into LEO, and is comparable to some of the largest operational rockets at the moment.
Now as there was no upper stage, the core stage delivered the Tianhe module directly to orbit, and then enters successive decaying orbits before re-entering the atmosphere. In the case of this launch, the Long March 5B splashed down in the Indian Ocean, without creating any damage.
2) JZYJ Completes Hot Test of Whole Engine
Launch startup JZYJ announced on Thursday 6 May that they had conducted a hot fire test of the fully-assembled Longyun engine. The Longyun engine is a 80t thrust gas generator cycle engine which burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen, and one of the two engines designed by China launch startup Jiuzhou Yunjian, the other one being the Lingyun engine which is a 10t thrust methalox engine (and which was the first engine they developed). This is one of the first test firings of the Longyun engine, with likely many more to come to test different levels of thrust and restarting the rocket engine multiple times, two key features for any VTVL reusable rocket.
3) CASSPACE announces B+ Funding Round
On 6 May CASSPACE announced a ~200M B+ round of funding. The announcement also noted that they have raised around RMB 600M in the past year from CAS, Yuexiu Capital, Zhongxin, Hunan Aviation and Aerospace Fund (湖南航空航天基金), etc. The article mentions that CASSPACE will have their first launch in H2 2021 of a solid-fueled rocket, and that their rocket is part of the CAS’s 13th Five-Year Plan Space Science and Technology Projects. The rocket will have a payload to SSO of 1.5 tons, and has already completed a variety of tests.
A lot of money being put into CASSPACE recently, and indeed, this is not the only second-tier/second-generation launch company to be having a big year. 2021 has seen Tianbing Aerospace and JZYJ also raise more money while reaching various technological milestones, while also seeing new entrants such as “Rocket Group” of Huzhou (火箭派).
4) OneSpace “close to” raising a new round of funding for its Linglong solid and liquid fueled rockets, plans to IPO in 2022
We heard over the past week in the Chinese media that OneSpace was close to raising new round of funding. This seems to confirm the comeback of the rocket company, which was rumored to be in dire straits after failing the orbital launch attempt of its OSM solid-fueled rocket.
As reported in the DFH episode of Feb 1-7, OneSpace had successfully raised a round of funding in September 2020, and successfully performed a suborbital launch of an OS-X (6B) rocket in February 2021. The fact that they may be able to raise another round of funding a mere 7-8 months after the previous round shows the renewed attractiveness of the company.
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This has been another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup. If you’ve made it this far, we thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to seeing you next time! Until then, don’t forget to follow us on YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or your local podcast source.
A Conversation on Chinese Satellite Constellations
China's Future Launch Plans for Crewed Spaceflight, the Growing Trend of Rideshare - Ep 73
Wentian: the Next Big Upgrade to the Chinese Space Station, A Review of China's IFC Market in 2022 - Ep 72
Tianbing Aerospace: the Most Eccentric Chinese Rocket Startup, CASC's 2022 Launch Blue Book & Takeaways - Ep 71
A Chinese Version of Relativity Space, Takeaways from China's Space White Paper - Ep 70
Chinese Launch Startups Are Raising a Historic Amount of Funding in 2022 - Ep 69
Could 2022 be the Year of Massive Chinese Satellite Deployment?, A New Variant of the Long March 8 - Ep 68
How the Chinese Space Station Handles Space Debris, A Retrospective Look at 2021 Rounds of Funding - Ep 67
The Chinese Space Station Tests Module Transfer Capabilities, A Chinese Startup is Developing Laser Comms Technologies - Ep 66
China Confirms Future Chang'e Lunar Missions, Starlink Comes Across The Chinese Space Station - Ep 65
The Top 8 Highlights of Chinese Space in 2021
Expace's Kuaizhou-1A Rocket Fails for the Second Time and Associated Implications, Rocket Pi Launches a Microgravity Platform - Ep 64
Galactic Energy Successfully Launches Ceres-1 and Gives An Exclusive Interview - Ep 63
A Chinese Startup Wants to Commercialize Relay Satellites, The Tiangang EO Constellation, Landspace Updates - Ep 62
Major Chinese Rocket Updates at the 2021 China Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan - Ep 61
China Betting Big on Sea-Based Launch, Revisiting the Concept of a US-China Space Race, The First China-Africa Beidou Conference - Ep 60
Shenzhou 13 Performs a Historic Spacewalk, iSpace Sets Foot in Wenchang, Tianwen-1 Changes Orbit - Ep 59
A New Constellation from Spacety, Orienspace's New Rockets & co-CEO, Linkspace Gives a Sign of Life - Ep 58
Mars Express & Zhurong to Communicate, China Breaks Previous Record in Launch, Launch Company Rocket Buys JZYJ Methalox Engines - Ep 57
Interview Part 2 - The Growing Trend of Chinese Space Culture (feat. Molly Silk)
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