OneSpace ( zh , s=零壹空间 , p= Líng Yī Kōngjiān , l= Zero One Space ) or One Space Technology Group ( zh , s= 零壹空间科技 , p= Líng Yī Kōngjiān Kējì , l= Zero One Space Technology ) is a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

private

space launch Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the ground, floating ship or midair aircraft at the start of a flight. Liftoff is of two main ...

group based in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, with subsidiaries in Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xi'an. OneSpace was founded in 2015. It is led by CEO Shu Chang, and is targeting the small launcher market for

microsatellites A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. T ...

and

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

s. OneSpace launched China's first private rocket in 2018. The company unveiled its family of rockets early in 2019. At least 10 such firms have emerged since the Chinese government policy shift in late 2014 to allow private companies into the launch and small satellite sectors.

Facilities

OneSpace's headquarters and R&D center are located in

. Its research and development center, and manufacturing and assembly base, are located in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

. Its rocket engine testing facility is located in

Jiangxi Province ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

and Shanxi Province.

Rockets

OS-X series - suborbital

The OS-X series of rockets are

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

s, reaching high altitude or reaching space but not orbit; they are meant for research and development of their launch systems.

OS-X0

The OS-X0 (aka "Chongqing Liangjiang Star") is a long suborbital high-altitude rocket. It uses solid propellant and is designed to carry payloads up to , reaching space. Its first flight (suborbital) was on 17 May 2018, reaching an altitude of . The rocket is built completely from homegrown Chinese technology. Its launch represents one of the first rockets (see i-Space Hyperbola-1S) designed by a private company launched in China. The development, building and launching of the rocket was achieved with budget less than $78 million. This flight was paid for by the Chinese state owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

OS-X1

The OS-X1 (aka "Chongqing Liangjiang Star") is a suborbital high-altitude rocket, a

, designed for research and testing. The

solid rocket motor A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder. The inception of gunpowder rockets in warfare can be cre ...

was successfully tested in December 2017. This 9-meter long rocket was launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on 7 September 2018 (04:10 UTC), reaching an altitude of 35 km and traveling 169 km.

OS-X6B

The OS-X6B (aka "Chongqing Liangjiang Star") is a long suborbital high-altitude rocket. It is designed to send payloads up to 300 km (190 mi) with an estimated flight time of 10 minutes. The maiden flight of this rocket took place on 5 February 2021 (09:05 UTC). The flight was successful.

OS-M series - orbital

The OS-M series of rockets are larger than the OS-X series and aim to provide low cost flights to

LEO Leo is the Latin word for lion. It most often refers to: * Leo (constellation), a constellation of stars in the night sky * Leo (astrology), an astrological sign of the zodiac * Leo (given name), a given name in several languages, usually mas ...

and SSO.

OS-M

The OS-M is a light-launch

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

rocketing payloads to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

(LEO) and

Sun synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

(SSO). It is projected to be capable of lifting to high LEO; and to high SSO. As of December 2018, the tests completed for OS-M are: * 2018/July/4: First-stage main rocket motor test. * 2018/August/24: Three-stage solid-state propellant and the second and third stage separation system test. * 2018/October/23: Fourth-stage engine and the third and fourth stage separation system test * 2018/November/26 through Nov/30:

Attitude control Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

system mechanical environment test. * 2018 December: Completed the OS-M attitude control system hot fire test.

OS-M1

OS-M1 or just OS-M, (also known as Chongqing Liangjiang Star or Chongqing SQX or Chongqing or SQX-1Y1), is a 4-stage solid fuel orbital rocket that is 19-meters long, 1.2 meters in diameter and weighs 21-tons. It is designed to lift about 112 kilograms into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. It was launched for its first orbital mission carrying the Lingque-1B technology verification satellite from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on 27 March 2019. Liftoff from the TLE-2 flat pad (atop a movable platform) took place at 09:39 UTC. After the first-stage separation, OS-M's attitude was unstable and the launch failed. A preliminary investigation found a malfunction of the rate gyroscope as cause. In the follow-up, OneSpace team said they will learn from the mistake and optimize the performance of the rocket. Reportedly OS-M1 uses demilitarized solid rocket motors from retired military missiles.

OS-M2

The OS-M2 is similar to the OS-M1, but has two boosters. Block A will be capable of lifting to LEO and to SSO, while block B will be capable of lifting to LEO and to SEO.

OS-M4

The OS-M4 has four boosters. Block A will be capable of lifting 552 kg to LEO and 307 kg to 800 km SSO, while block B will be capable of lifting 748 kg to LEO and 446 kg to 800 km SEO.

Future OS-M rockets

The firm is anticipating making future entries in the OS-M series of rockets in some way reusable. OneSpace is developing a 59-ton rocket, that was originally scheduled for launch in 2018. It is to have a payload to LEO. This is projected to cost RMB 100,000 CNY/kg (6500 USD/lb) OneSpace also envisions to eventually develop a crewed space capsule.

Launches

Some sub-orbital launches noted in Rockets section above. Also one orbital attempt with OS-M1 on 27 March 2019. The attempt ended with a 2nd stage failure.

Marketplace

OneSpace is in competition with several other Chinese space rocket startups, being

LandSpace LandSpace Technology Corporation (doing business as LandSpace) is a Chinese commercial space launch provider based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu. In July 2023, the company's Zhuque-2 rocket became the world's first methan ...

LinkSpace LinkSpace ( zh, s=翎客航天, p=Líng-kè Hángtiān , l= LINK Aerospace) or Link Space Aerospace Technology Inc. is a Chinese private space launch company based in Beijing. It is led by CEO Hu Zhenyu, and founded as the first private rocket f ...

ExPace ExPace (ExPace Technology Corporation; also called CASIC Rocket Technology Company) is a Chinese state-owned space rocket company, based in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Its corporate compound is located at the Wuhan National Space Industry Base space ...

, i-Space,

Galactic Energy Galactic Energy () is a Chinese private space launch enterprise flying the Ceres-1 and developing the Pallas-1 and Ceres-2 orbital rockets. The company's long-term objective is to mine asteroids for rare metals and minerals. History Galac ...

, and

Deep Blue Aerospace Jiangsu Deep Blue Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. () is a private space launch enterprise founded in November 2016 by Huo Liang. The company is located in Jiangsu province on the East coast of China. It is engaged in the development of reusable ...

Space Pioneer Space Pioneer (), also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., is a Chinese aerospace company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both launch vehicles and liquid rocket engines—to access the market for low-cost space laun ...

is a Chinese liquid-propellant rocket startup competing in the sector.

Financing

OneSpace secured $43.6 million in series B funding in August 2018. The financing was led by CICC Jiatai Equity Fund, followed by FinTrek Capital, with China Merchants Venture Capital, Qianhai Wande Fund and Qianhai Wutong M&A Fund also increasing their investment in the company. This fourth round of financing takes the total raised since the founding of OneSpace in August 2015 to $116 million.

References

{{Transport in China Aerospace companies of China Space launch vehicles of China Private spaceflight companies Commercial spaceflight Commercial launch service providers Companies based in Beijing Transport companies established in 2015 Chinese companies established in 2015