China's LandSpace readies satellite launch with methane-fuelled rocket (updated)

Weibo

05/12/2023 07:04

(Updates Dec. 4 story with company response, context;
paragraphs 1-2,5-7,11)
    By Ella Cao, Roxanne Liu and Bernard Orr
       BEIJING, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Beijing-based LandSpace
Technology, one of China's private space companies, is preparing
to launch satellite payloads to orbit in a key commercial test
of its methane and liquid oxygen fuelled rocket.
    Investors and rocket developers have said methane could
offer a way to help slash costs and support reusable rockets in
a cleaner and more efficient manner.
    LandSpace's Zhuque-2 carrier rocket was transferred to the
launch area of a space facility in the Gobi Desert on Friday and
is readying for launch, designated Y-3, the company said on its
Weibo social media account.
    The company did not specify a launch window for the rocket,
which will blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in
Inner Mongolia. 
    LandSpace aims to prove the feasibility of Zhuque-2 with
three test launches; the first two were Y-1 and Y-2, a company
representative said on Tuesday.
    If Zhuque-2 is validated, LandSpace plans to provide clients
about three launches in 2024 and double that number in 2025, the
representative said.  
    LandSpace declined to provide details on the launch date or
the number and type of the satellites to be carried by Y-3. 
    Chinese commercial space firms have rushed into the sector
since 2014, when the government allowed private investment in an
industry now dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX. 
    LandSpace was one of the earliest and best funded of the
Chinese space startups aiming to tap into the demand for rocket
launches amid growing competition to place satellites in
low-Earth orbit as an alternative to Musk's Starlink.
    In July, LandSpace hit a benchmark in that race with the
launch of the world's first methane-liquid oxygen rocket, the
Zhuque-2 Y-2, putting China ahead of U.S. rivals including
SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
    Before Y-2, which didn't carry a usable satellite, LandSpace
said that Zhuque-2 Y-1, the first test rocket, failed a launch
last year, without specifying whether it carried any satellite
payloads. 
    Founded in 2015, LandSpace has secured funding from
investors including venture capital firm HongShan, known at that
time as Sequoia Capital China, the investment arm of Chinese
property developer Country Garden and the state-backed China SME
Development Fund.
    LandSpace's latest announced fundraising was in 2020, when
it raised 1.2 billion yuan ($168.14 million). The company has
had fundraising rounds of undisclosed sizes since, Chinese
company record tracking database Tianyancha showed.
    In July, LandSpace founder and CEO Zhang Changwu told
Chinese publication Yicai the company had started developing
reusable rockets and expected to conduct a test launch in the
second half of 2025.
    LandSpace rival OrienSpace, founded in 2020, said it plans
to launch its first solid-fuel rocket, Gravity-1, in December. 
    
    ($1 = 7.1368 yuan)

 (Reporting by Ella Cao, Roxanne Liu and Bernard Orr; Editing by
Kevin Krolicki, Miral Fahmy and Gerry Doyle)
 ((bernard.orr@thomsonreuters.com))