HELSINKI — Chinese business launch firm Space Pioneer has announced a brand new round of funding for development of the Tianlong-3 rocket comparable to the SpaceX Falcon 9.
Space Pioneer—full name Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd—announced the “C+” funding round value “several hundred tens of millions yuan,” Oct. 25 (100 million yuan = $13.7 million). This twelfth round of funding will go towards completing the Tianlong-3 rocket which is to be able to lifting 17 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO), based on an organization press statement.
The funds may also be used for production of the smaller Tianlong-2, which had a successful inaugural flight in April this 12 months. That launch made the corporate the primary Chinese business firm to achieve orbit with a liquid propellant rocket.
Construction of a launch site for the Tianlong-3 at China’s Jiuquan spaceport within the Gobi Desert can also be noted.
Space Pioneer is targeting a primary Tianlong-3 launch in the primary half of 2024. It goals to launch 30 times per 12 months inside three years of the debut launch.
The round was led by CITIC Construction Investment, the engineering and construction arm of Chinese state-owned CITIC Group. Quite a few other state-owned investment vehicles, including CICC, China Construction Bank, CITIC and Zhejiang University Lianchuang, have participated in earlier rounds.
Tianlong-3 (“Sky Dragon-3”) is a two-stage kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket with a reusable first stage. The 71-meter-long rocket could have a diameter of three.8 meters. It’s going to have a takeoff mass of 590 tons and produce 770 tons of thrust.
Space Pioneer states that the rocket shall be able to lifting 17 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, or 14 tons to 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.
Tianlong-3 is by far the most important business rocket near launch in China. It might even be nationally second only to the expendable Long March 5B (25 tons) terms of capability to LEO.
Not only have Chinese business rockets made breakthroughs with Tianlong-2 and Landspace’s Zhuque-2, but national-level policies and projects are actually in place to offer opportunities for corporations. This includes potential cargo launches to the Tiangong space station.
Space Pioneer, furthermore, claims that it’ll have the aptitude of carrying 30 satellites on a single launch. This, it says, meets the “low-cost, high-reliability, and high-frequency” launch requirements for China’s national LEO satellite Web project.
China is planning to construct its “Guowang” LEO communications megaconstellation of 13,000 satellites. Business firms are apparently capable of take part in the national project. Tianlong-3 could potentially provide high-density, high-capacity launch capabilities that China currently lacks.
The country’s major state-owned space contractor CASC has meanwhile stated it’s planning to ramp up production of its expendable Long March 5B and Long March 8 rockets. Efforts include the development of a brand new launch site at Wenchang to assist get the Guowang project off the bottom.
The firm can also be gearing up for its second orbital launch attempt. Jiangsu News reported Oct. 23 that the corporate’s second Tianlong-2 rocket has been transported from Tianjin to Zhangjiagang, Suzhou. The rocket, powered by coal-derived kerosene and CASC-developed YF-102 gas generator engines, will launch in 2024.
Space Pioneer is readying an intelligent manufacturing base in Zhangjiagang. It says it’ll have a producing capability of 30 liquid launch vehicles and 500 rocket engines annually.
Space Pioneer says it’ll give attention to reusability in the approaching years. It has previously also stated plans to develop a Tianlong-3H: a triple-core version in the identical style because the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. The Tianlong-3M would see a single core rocket tipped with a reusable spaceplane.
China opened up its space sector to personal and business activity in 2014, seeing the emergence of launch and other corporations. Business entities Landspace, Space Pioneer, Galactic Energy, iSpace and Expace have all reached orbit up to now this 12 months.