LinkSpace ( zh, s=翎客航天, p=Líng-kè Hángtiān , l= LINK Aerospace) or Link Space Aerospace Technology Inc. is a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

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 t ...

company based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. It is led by CEO Hu Zhenyu, and founded as the first private rocket firm in China. The company was founded in 2014, by Hu Zhenyu, a graduate of

South China University of Technology The South China University of Technology (SCUT; ) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. The university is co-sponsored by the China Ministry of Education and the Guangdong Provincial People's Government. The university is a mult ...

; Yan Chengyi, a graduate of

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

; and Wu Xiaofei, a manufacturing expert. The company is registered in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Rockets

Test rockets

In 2013, before the official registration of the company, Hu's team was testing the ''KC-SA-TOP'' suborbital rocket with payloads in Horqin Left Rear Banner,

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

VTVL prototypes

LinkSpace has built flying vertical-takeoff/vertical-landing (VTVL) prototype test rockets, to develop its reusable rocket technology. By July 2016, it achieved hover flight with a single-engine thrust-vectored rocket. By September 2017, it had built three hovering rockets, tested in

Shandong Province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

. On 19 April 2019, the VTVL prototype test rocket ''RLV-T5'' flew to a height of 40 m (131 ft) and landed safely after thirty seconds of flight. ''RLV-T5'', also known as ''NewLine Baby,'' is 8.1 m (27 ft) in length, weighs 1.5 t (1,100 lbs) and has five liquid engines. On 10 August 2019 the company reported a test flight reaching a height of 300 meters. On 5 May 2022, the company announced that it had conducted a static fire test of its RLV-T6 test vehicle in preparation for a altitude test flight in late 2022, but in September it was expected to be launched no earlier than mid-2023. The rocket will launch from

Lenghu Lenghu () is a town in Mangnai, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is located in the northwest of Qinghai province, China, bordering Gansu to the north/northeast and Xinjiang to the northwest. History In 2018, the Mangnai and Len ...

, in

Qinghai Province Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest pop ...

New Line 1

The New Line 1 (Xin Gan Xian 1; zh, s=新干线一号, p=xīn gàn xiàn 1) is a two-stage rocket under development to launch microsats and nanosats, with a reusable first stage. It is to be a liquid-fuelled rocket, with a diameter of , height of . It would have a lift-off mass of and take-off thrust of , allowing a payload of to be lifted into a

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) of high. The first stage would have four liquid engines, fueled by kerolox (

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

), each producing of thrust. It is projected to have an initial launch cost of $4.5 million, dropping to $2.25 million using a reused first stage. As of the end of 2017, the main rocket engine has been tested over 200 times, and first launch was planned for 2020.

Future New Line rockets

Future development of a reusable second stage, in addition to the reusable first stage, is anticipated for in a future vehicle, such as ''New Line 3''.

Services

LinkSpace is planning to also be a transport and rocket services company, providing rocket parts, and transportation. As part of the transportation, it will not just send payloads into orbit, or on suborbital jaunts; it also plans to send packages from one point on Earth to another point. This is similar to SpaceX's plan for suborbital rocket passenger transport anywhere around the world with

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...

Marketplace

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

LandSpace LandSpace Technology Corporation (doing business as LandSpace) is a Chinese private space launch provider based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu. LandSpace developed its first launch vehicle Zhuque-1, powered by solid-prope ...

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

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,

OneSpace 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 private space launch group b ...

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 the Jiangsu province on the East coast of China. It is engaged in the reusability of rockets. ...

. With rocket reusability and point-to-point transport, it is similar to

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

References

External links

* Official website: http://linkspace.com.cn/ {{Transport in China Commercial launch service providers Transport companies established in 2014 Chinese companies established in 2014 Aerospace companies of China Companies based in Beijing