2.09.2025

Launch preparations for Gravity-1 aboard the Defu-15002 sea platform. Credit: Orienspace

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Chinese commercial rocket company Orienspace has raised tens of millions of dollars in Series B+ financing as it moves towards a key test flight.

Orienspace secured funding of between $27 million and $124 million (“hundreds of millions of yuan,” or between 200 million and 900 million yuan), the Chinese language Taibo Network reported Aug. 5. The capital will be used mainly for the follow-up development and mass production of the Gravity-2 medium-lift liquid launch vehicle.

The company will soon begin comprehensive ground verification tests for the Gravity-2 and is scheduled to carry out its first flight test by the end of this year, according to the report. In July Orienspace successfully conducted a hot fire test of a Gravity-2 kerosene-liquid oxygen first stage engine, including gimbal and valve system evaluations.

It was unclear if it was using its self-developed Yuanli‑85 engine or if it had switched to the YF-102, an engine developed by state space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and used by other commercial launch firms.

Gravity-2 is a 70 meters tall, two-stage reusable liquid propellant launcher. It has a core diameter of 4.2 meters and a 5.2-meter-wide payload fairing. According to earlier statements, the Gravity-2 (if powered by nine Yuanli-85 engines as originally planned) can carry 21,500 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 15,000 kg to 500-kilometer sun synchronous orbit (SSO). A variant with solid side boosters would be capable of sending 29,000 kg to LEO or around 20,000 kg to SSO.

Orienspace has conducted one orbital mission so far: the January 2024 sea launch of the powerful Gravity-1 solid propellant rocket, setting records for a solid launcher . The Gravity-1 has, however, yet to fly since, though the second launcher is understood to have recently passed tests ahead of launch.

The company also announced significant management changes along with the B+ funding. Yao Song, who co-founded the company in 2020, has stepped down from the board of directors and no longer serves as a director. Yao has decided to return to the artificial intelligence sector, according to the Taibo Network report. Orienspace also added five new board members and introduced three new supervisors to its team. The company last year secured $83.5 million in funding.

Orienspace’s progress on Gravity-2 comes amid a rush of companies—both commercial and state-owned—closing in on debut flights of rockets with potentially reusable first stages. CASC’s Long March 12A and Landspace’s Zhuque-3 could make debut flights this year, with the latter potentially flying as soon as September. 

CAS Space, a spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently conducted tests for launch equipment for the kerosene-lox Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) rocket at Jiuquan, with the first rocket expected to launch in the near future and carry a prototype low-cost cargo spacecraft. Also in the mix are Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1, Nebula-1 from Deep Blue Aerospace and Tianlong-3 from Space Pioneer.

Orienspace will be aiming to compete with these fellow launch service providers to secure launch contracts for China’s broadband megaconstellations: the national Guowang project and the Shanghai-led Qianfan (Thousand Sails) constellation.

Quelle: SN