China's Space Program Thread II

[TheRathalos]

Galactic Energy's new launch vehicles are becoming a reality

The company announced that it has completed a test firing of the second stage of the Pallas-1 medium reusable launch vehicle. The test took place at its test bench near the city of Chizhou (30.468915°N 117.265830°E) and lasted approximately 224 seconds.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1972223377051205682

A S1 static fire is also expected ahead of a launch at the end of the year or early next year at their Jiuquan launch site.

The company also announced that it has assembled the first flight model of the Ceres-2 light solid-propellant launch vehicle, which has passed qualification tests and factory review; a launch could take place as early as November.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The company also announced a fundraising round of 2.4 billion Yuan ($336M)

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Recently, Beijing Galaxy Power Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Galaxy Power) successfully completed its Series D funding round, raising a total of 2.4 billion yuan. Investors in this round include: Beijing Commercial Space and Low-Altitude Economy Industry Investment Fund, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and various investment platforms in Nanjing's Liuhe District, Sichuan Industrial Revitalization Fund Investment Group's Sichuan Manufacturing Collaborative Fund and Sichuan Regional Collaborative Fund, Sichuan Achievement Transformation Fund, Jinan Zhongtai Jiaochan Fund, Jiaorong Junhong Phase V Nanjing Fund, Yizhuang Zhongying Fuyao Fund, Chizhou Meiling Chixiang Fund, Hainan Hecheng Aerospace Fund, and others.

 

[by78]

High-resolution images from the launch of the 11th batch of Guowang/China Satnet satellites, which was carried out by a Long March 6A. This was the 597th flight of the Long March series.

 

[Michael90]

Galactic Energy's new launch vehicles are becoming a reality

The company announced that it has completed a test firing of the second stage of the Pallas-1 medium reusable launch vehicle. The test took place at its test bench near the city of Chizhou (30.468915°N 117.265830°E) and lasted approximately 224 seconds.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1972223377051205682

View attachment 161713
View attachment 161714

A S1 static fire is also expected ahead of a launch at the end of the year or early next year at their Jiuquan launch site.

The company also announced that it has assembled the first flight model of the Ceres-2 light solid-propellant launch vehicle, which has passed qualification tests and factory review; a launch could take place as early as November.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

View attachment 161715
The company also announced a fundraising round of 2.4 billion Yuan ($336M)

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Will be interesting to see if Pallas 1 will make it to her first flight before Landspace Zhuque 3. I wonder when they intend to lanch the Pallas 1B as well, since I think that will be the real competitor to Landspace Zhuque 3. Else Landspace will just dominate much of the lucrative market If their launch is successful, maybe only space pioneer’s Tianlong 3 which is expected to be launched the end of this year as well might be able to compete.

 

[ENTED64]

Speaking of Zhuque-3 is there any news on that front? I recall the CEO saying that they still planned on first launch in September or November even after the Zhuque-2 failure. I can't find any more news about Zhuque-3 on this thread after that. It's the end of September so I guess it's going to be November? There's a bunch of rockets planning to debut some time before the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026.

 

[tiancai8888]

Speaking of Zhuque-3 is there any news on that front? I recall the CEO saying that they still planned on first launch in September or November even after the Zhuque-2 failure. I can't find any more news about Zhuque-3 on this thread after that. It's the end of September so I guess it's going to be November? There's a bunch of rockets planning to debut some time before the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026.

Watched live podcast of Chinese Space sources. They said the launch was pushed to Nov due to the examine of the safety protocols conducted by military. The examine covers all commercical space companies. Nov is a great month to watch. We have ZQ-3, TL-3, LJ-2 & CZ-12A. And ZQ-3 & CZ-12A would try to land their first stage.

 

[Michael90]

Watched live podcast of Chinese Space sources. They said the launch was pushed to Nov due to the examine of the safety protocols conducted by military. The examine covers all commercical space companies. Nov is a great month to watch. We have ZQ-3, TL-3, LJ-2 & CZ-12A. And ZQ-3 & CZ-12A would try to land their first stage.

TL-3 first stage not recoverable as well? I thought it also had a first stage reusability?
or they have 2models (expendable and recoverable)?

 

[tiancai8888]

TL-3 first stage not recoverable as well? I thought it also had a first stage reusability?
or they have 2models (expendable and recoverable)?

The design is recoverable, but not for the first batch. The chairman said a year ago they plan to land the first stage of the 5th TL-3, they will test the reusable tech during the fisrt 4 launches. but after a whole year, we doesn't know if the plan is changed. At least I can say they won't recovery the maiden one.

 

[Michael90]

The design is recoverable, but not for the first batch. The chairman said a year ago they plan to land the first stage of the 5th TL-3, they will test the reusable tech during the fisrt 4 launches. but after a whole year, we doesn't know if the plan is changed. At least I can say they won't recovery the maiden one.

It seems Landspace will be the only viable one among the private companies who is really serious about reusable rockets. The rest seem to be far behind. From what i'm hearing, Space pioneer wont be venturing into reusable launch anytime soon, their talking is kinda similar to long march 8 which was said to have been designed with "reusability in mind" as well, but it eventually fizzle out and got dropped to be just an expendable rocket. seems that objective was transfered to long march 12A instead. Dont think space pioneer will do the same, since they dont have as much rockets to switch this to unlike CASC. Guess we will just wait and see.
Is pallas 1 designed with reusability in mind as well?

 

[tiancai8888]

It seems Landspace will be the only viable one among the private companies who is really serious about reusable rockets. The rest seem to be far behind. From what i'm hearing, Space pioneer wont be venturing into reusable launch anytime soon, their talking is kinda similar to long march 8 which was said to have been designed with "reusability in mind" as well, but it eventually fizzle out and got dropped to be just an expendable rocket. seems that objective was transfered to long march 12A instead. Dont think space pioneer will do the same, since they dont have as much rockets to switch this to unlike CASC. Guess we will just wait and see.
Is pallas 1 designed with reusability in mind as well?

Yes, the Pallas-1 is designed with reusability. But IMO the team took way tooooo long to develop this rocket and the payload to LEO is low compare to other companies. The rocket will soon be KOed is other companies successfully increase their launch rate.
And also heard from the live podcast. It seems land space went on the path to crank up the launch rate by recovering & reusing the rockets.
while on the other hand, Space pionner went on the path to cut the cost of their rocket as low as possible and at the result, to produce more.

 

[Michael90]

Yes, the Pallas-1 is designed with reusability. But IMO the team took way tooooo long to develop this rocket and the payload to LEO is low compare to other companies. The rocket will soon be KOed is other companies successfully increase their launch rate.
And also heard from the live podcast. It seems land space went on the path to crank up the launch rate by recovering & reusing the rockets.
while on the other hand, Space pionner went on the path to cut the cost of their rocket as low as possible and at the result, to produce more.

Well, I don’t think Galactic energy took too long on their Pallas since we shouldn’t forget that Landspace was among the first private companies founded in China after space industry was opened up to private sector , Landspace was founded 10years ago, while galactic energy was founded 3 years later. So if we compare the 2 we can say they are almost at similar rate of growth in their rocket launch plans. The real outlier here in space pioneer who founded a full 4 years after Landspace (1year after galactic energy) but they already launched a rocket heavier than anything galactic energy has in view and now about to launch similar rocket capacity as Landspace best/heaviest rocket . So I will be more optimistic about space pioneer for now. They are moving faster than all the others. Hope they succeed with the Tianlong rocket this coming months.
The interesting thing, even though Chinese private rocket companies have been slow/abit disappointing in their launch schedule compared to their earlier plans, the market is still wide open for the first company who will be able to launch a viable reusable rocket or a rocket that is cheap enough and with capacity to be produced at a quick rate. That’s what the market needs right now, with all the satellite constellations waiting for rocket availability . There’s still a huge shortage of viable rocket capacity in the market. Else Qianfan wouldn’t have cancelled her 2 bids for lack of viable rocket launcher, which doesn’t bode well for the industry. There’s an urgent need to really up the launch cadence of Chinese space industry. Who will be the first to be able to achieve this remains to be seen. Maybe next year will determine the clear winner here.