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 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 va ...

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 ...

group 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 ...

, subsidiaries in Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xi'an. OneSpace was founded in 2015. OneSpace 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. ...

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 ca ...

s. OneSpace launched China's first private rocket in 2018. The company plans to unveil 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 an R&D center is located in

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

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

. Its rocket engine testing facility is located in

Jiangxi Province Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...

and Shanxi Province.

Rockets

OS-X series

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 atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital r ...

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 used to ...

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. 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 Hyberbola-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; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persians ...

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

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

OS-M

The OS-M is a light-launch

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

rocketing payloads to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

(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 were： * 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 Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

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.

Marketplace

OneSpace 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 ...

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 fi ...

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 2 orbital rockets. The company's long-term objective is to mine asteroids for rare metals and minerals. History Galactic Energ ...

, 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. ...

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 lau ...

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