Orienspace Technology (Shandong) Co., Ltd (Orienspace for short) is a commercial aerospace enterprise in China founded in 2020. The company designs and manufactures Gravity Series launch vehicles and Force Series rocket engines.
Background
Orienspace is headquartered in Shandong Province, where an assembly, integration and test center is being built for future activities.
The company also established an
R&D center in Beijing Office and a headquarters of aerospace propulsion technology in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
As of October 2023, Orienspace has raised four rounds of financing, totaling over 150 million USD.
In January 2024, Orienspace Secures 600 Million Yuan Funding for Rocket Development Amid Soaring Demand in China
Product lineup
Gravity-1 is a
solid-propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or another motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, th ...
medium-lift launch vehicle
A medium-lift launch vehicle (MLV) is a rocket launch vehicle that is capable of lifting between by NASA classification or between by Russian classification of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO).50t payloads" An MLV is between a small-lift ...
that can carry a payload of up to 6.5 tons to
LEO or 4.2 tons to
SSO, enabling the deployment of large-scale
satellite constellation
A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global pass (spaceflight), coverage, such that at any time everywhere on E ...
s. Its maiden flight was conducted on 11 January 2024, breaking records as both the world's largest solid-fuel carrier rocket and China's most powerful commercial launch vehicle to date.
Gravity-2, a
partially recoverable heavy-lift launch vehicle
A heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLV) is an orbital launch vehicle capable of lifting payloads between (by NASA classification) or between (by Russian classification) into low Earth orbit (LEO).50t payloads" Heavy-lift launch vehicles often carry ...
, is expected to debut in 2025. It will be a 60-meter-tall heavy-lift rocket with a liquid-fuel core stage and solid boosters. The core stage will be powered by nine
Yuanli-85 engines, which are
gas-generator cycle
The gas-generator cycle, also referred to as the GG cycle or colloquially as an open cycle, is one of the most commonly used power cycles in bipropellant liquid rocket engines.
Propellant is burned in a gas generator (analogous to, but distinct ...
kerosene engines with a thrust of 100 tons each. Gravity-2 will be able to deliver 25.6 tons of payload to
LEO, 19.1 tons to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), or 7.7 tons to
geostationary transfer orbit
In space mission design, a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical type of geocentric orbit, usually with a perigee as low as low Earth orbit (LEO) and an apogee as high as geostationary orbit ...
(GTO).
It will also be partially recoverable and support missions to higher orbits such as
MEO and
LTO.
Gravity-3 is a planned variant of Gravity-2 that will use three Gravity-2 core stages. It will have a payload capacity of 30.6 tons to LEO, 20.5 tons to SSO, 9.6 tons to GTO, and 8 tons to LTO.
It will enable large-scale satellite constellation deployment and lunar exploration.
List of launches
See also
*
Sea Launch
Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...
References
External links
*
{{Chinese launch systems
Chinese companies established in 2020
Aerospace companies of China
Companies based in Shandong