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Raumfahrt - OneSpace: Chinese private space company launches suborbital rocket

2.09.2018

OneSpace of China to launch its second rocket in September from Jiuquan

Chinese commercial space launch company OneSpace will launch its second rocket in September, which will mark the first private Chinese launch from a national launch centre.

The rocket will be an OS-X1 series suborbital rocket, named Chongqing Liangjiang Star, which has a height of 10.2 m, a diameter of 0.85 m and mass at liftoff of 8.1 metric tonnes. No information on the payload was made available.

The launch will take place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in a desert region of Northwest China, which became China's first launch centre when opened in 1958.

The OS-X1 rocket test team, which according to a press release consists of about 20 people with nearly half of which were born in the 1990s, is currently at Jiuquan for assembly of the rocket.

The first OneSpace launch—from a test base in northwest China and claimed to be the first launch of a privately designed Chinese rocket—took place on May 17 this year and saw the OS-X1/Chongqing Liangjiang Star fly for 265 seconds, reaching an altitude of around 40 kilometres and travelling some 273 km.

Another Chinese startup, iSpace, had a month earlier launched a Hyperbola-1S test rocket, surpassing the 100 km altitude Karman line which is generally accepted as the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.

The scene following a vertical assembly rehearsal of an OS-X rocket, developed by Chinese commercial rocket company OneSpace.

 

 

The scene following a vertical assembly rehearsal of an OS-X rocket, developed by Chinese commercial rocket company OneSpace. Courtesy of OneSpace

Rapid race to space

OneSpace Technology was established in 2015 with support of the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), which oversees the space sector in China, with a military-civilian integration initiative providing access to necessary technology such as solid rocket motors.

The startup is now carrying out suborbital flights for a research contract with an aerospace company for aerodynamic and other high-altitude tests. The launches will also provide experience ahead of its debut orbital launch which is currently expected before the end of 2018.

The company is developing an OS-M series of solid rockets to provide orbital launch services. Last week OneSpace test-fired first stage engines and successfully performed stage separation tests.

Last month the company raised US$44 million in B series financing, adding to 500 million yuan (US$77.6m) raised through earlier financing rounds.

OneSpace is aiming to achieve an annual production capacity of more than 30 OS-M series rockets and 20 or more OS-X series rockets by 2020, according to earlier statements from CEO Shu Chang.

The banner of the OneSpace website.

 

 

The banner of the OneSpace website. onespacechina.com

Landspace, Expace prepare for launches

Expace, a nominally private space launch company which is in reality a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned missile maker and defence contractor CASIC, will also carry out its next launch in September.

The launch will involve a Kuaizhou-1A, a 20-meter-tall, 1.4-meter-diameter solid-fuelled rocket, lofting the Centispace-1-S1 satellite to a 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

Beijing-based Landspace meanwhile is preparing for its first launch, of an orbital Zhuque-1 solid-fuelled rocket, to take place in the final quarter of the year.

The mission aims to be the first orbital launch by a Chinese private space company and will carry the 'Future' satellite into an SSO for China Central Television (CCTV).

The Zhuque-1, which refers to the mythical Vermillion bird, last week went through assembly and factory tests. The 19-metre-tall rocket has a diameter of 1.35-metres, a takeoff weight of 27 metric tonnes, producing 45 tonnes of thrust.

Landspace's Zhuque-1 three-stage solid-fuel rocket going through assembly and testing in August 2018.

 

 

Landspace's Zhuque-1 three-stage solid-fuel rocket going through assembly and testing in August 2018. Landspace

Quelle: gbtimes

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Update: 5.09.2018

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Chinese private space company launches suborbital rocket

A private Chinese company sent a suborbital rocket into space at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The SQX-1Z was developed by iSpace, a Beijing-based private rocket developer, founded in 2016 with a research center in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.

The rocket carried three CubeSats, miniaturized satellites, for two Chinese commercial companies. After entering its preset orbit, the rocket will release two satellites for testing, and the third satellite will be parachuted to Earth, according to a statement by the company.

After the launch, the SQX-1Z rocket will provide minisatellite and constellation launch services for clients, said Yao Bowen, who works for the company's public relations division.

Quelle: Xinhua

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Update: 6.09.2018

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Private Chinese space company places satellites in orbit

 

A rocket developed by Chinese company iSpace blasted into space Wednesday carrying three miniature satellites in another milestone for the country's budding private spaceflight industry.

Reports said the SQX-1Z rocket took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China and entered space at a suborbital level. Two of the satellites will be released into space for testing while the third will re-enter the atmosphere and parachute down to Earth.

It was believed to be the first time a private Chinese company had carried satellites into space. Founded in 2016, iSpace is develops "high-quality, low-cost, fast-responding" commercial launchers to serve micro-satellite manufacturers, operators, research institutes and universities at home and abroad, according to a company statement.

China's space program has traditionally been run by the military, but a number of commercial satellite launchers have also sprung up in recent years, modeled on private U.S. companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

In May, Beijing-based OneSpace Technologies became the first private Chinese spaceflight company to send a rocket into space, launching its relatively modest 9-meter (30-foot) OS-X for a test flight that ended with it falling back to Earth.
Quelle: THE TRIBUNE
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Update: 6.09.2018
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Chinese commercial space launch sector heats up with iSpace suborbital flight

hyperbola-1z-launch-jiuquan-sept5-2018-ispace-cns1

Hyperbola-1Z (SQX-1Z) sounding rocket lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 05:00 UTC on September 5, 2018. CNS

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