Space Pioneer (), also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., is a Chinese

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both

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 ...

s and

liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

s—to access the market for low-cost space launch services. The company is aiming to meet launch requirements for both the

Chinese national Chinese nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into ...

satellite internet Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites; if it can sustain high speeds, it is termed satellite broadband. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual use ...

project and also the

CNSA The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a government agency of the People's Republic of China headquartered in Haidian, Beijing, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These responsibilities ...

solicitation Solicitation is the act of offering, or attempting to purchase, goods and/or services. Legal status may be specific to the time or place where it occurs. The crime of "solicitation to commit a crime" occurs when a person encourages, "solicits, r ...

for resupply of the

Tiangong space station Tiangong (), officially the ''Tiangong'' space station (), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency. Tiangong is a modular design, with modules docked together while in low Earth o ...

. The stated mission of Space Pioneer is to "pursue new breakthroughs in technology and performance, ndto select a technological path based on the needs of the commercial market to improve launch efficiency and reduce launch costs."

History

Space Pioneer was founded in 2019 by Kang Yonglai. Kang was the former CTO of

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 ...

until 2019, when he left to establish Space Pioneer. The company completed two funding rounds in 2019, including a ZJU Joint Innovation investment, to continue

bipropellant The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...

engine

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of the Tianhuo series of

s. In April 2020, the company raised in order to complete development of its liquid rocket engine Tianhuo-3, which had begun igniter hot fire tests in 2019. This was followed in September with a "multiple hundreds of millions of yuan" ()

Series A A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

capital raise. The company secured

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

funding in a pre-B funding round in July 2021. The funds were used to complete initial development of the Tianlong-1 reusable

, a

kerolox The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...

-propellant vehicle with a payload capacity to orbit exceeding , during 2021–22. In July 2023, Space Pioneer announced that it had raised hundreds of millions of yuan in C-round funding, bringing the total amount raised to around . The funds will be used for the development of the Tianlong-3 reusable launch vehicle.

Technology

Space Pioneer is developing reusable spaceflight technology rather than the traditional

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rocket technology. Both

s and

s are being designed for reuse.

Tianlong-1

Tianlong-1 is a

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

(

) fueled vehicle using the Tianhuo-3 engine, with a payload capacity 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 ...

exceeding .

Tianlong-2

Tianlong-2, another launch vehicle designed by the company, entered service in early 2023. It is 32.8m tall, and it can lift up to 2t 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 1.5t to 500km SSO. The maiden flight of Tianlong-2 took place on 2 April 2023, successfully carrying the Jinta cubesat from Hunan Hangsheng Satellite Technology to a

Sun-synchronous 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 ...

orbit. This mission represented the first successful launch of a Chinese privately funded, liquid-fueled, kerolox rocket with Space Pioneer becoming the first startup company to reach orbit on its maiden attempt.

Tianlong-3

Tianlong-3 is a two-stage kerolox launch vehicle with a reusable first stage that is currently under development. It is designed to lift about 17t to

and 14t to 500km SSO, comparable to

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

launch vehicle. As of November 2023, the first launch is scheduled for June 2024, with two more launches planned before the end of 2024. On 30 June 2024, a Tianlong-3 first stage rocket detached from its stand during a static fire test due to a structural failure, resulting in an unintentional launch. The rocket landed and exploded in the mountains southwest of the test site in

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, China, and no casualties were reported.

Engines

Space Pioneer's engine series are designated as Tianhuo (Sky Fire). Early concepts include Tianhuo-1 (TH-1), the initial Space Pioneer rocket engine, with hot-fire ground testing completed before 2020. Tianhuo-2 (TH-2) was developed subsequent to Tianhuo-1, with the first hot fire test of the engine in early 2020. Tianhuo-3 (TH-3) is a kerolox liquid-bipropellant rocket engine with of

thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that ...

. It is intended to be the main engine for the Tianlong-1 launch vehicle. The engine had its first hot-fire test in December 2020, with a 50-second duration ground test run. Space Pioneer later re-designated TH-3 as TH-11, which successfully powered the second stage of the Tianlong-2 rocket. A larger, class

TH-12 The TH-12 (, lit. ''Sky Fire 12'') is an oxidizer-rich gas-generator cycle rocket engine burning LOX and kerosene under development by Space Pioneer. The TH-12 utilizes 3D printing and has the highest target thrust among all commercial rocket eng ...

engine is in development for its upcoming

Tianlong-3 Tianlong-3 (, ''TL-3'') is a medium-lift orbital launch vehicle developed by the Chinese private aerospace manufacturer Space Pioneer. It is designed to be partially reusable, with the first stage capable of performing an autonomous vertical landi ...

launch vehicle.

Launches

References

{{Orbital launch systems Aerospace companies of China Chinese companies established in 2015 Commercial launch service providers Private spaceflight companies