The Pallas-1 ( zh, s=智神星一号) is a medium-lift orbital launch vehicle under development by

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 ...

. It features seven new 40-ton variable thrust Welkin engines burning

RP-1 RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is s ...

and liquid oxygen ( kerolox) in its first stage. The first stage will also have legs and grid fins to allow recovery by vertical landing (much like the SpaceX

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

). The first launch is scheduled to take place in 2024. Pallas-1 is planned to be capable of placing a 5-tonne payload into

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), or a 3-tonne payload into a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). An upgraded variant of the rocket, Pallas-2 ( zh, s=智神星二号), is currently under development. Using three Pallas-1 booster cores as its first stage, Pallas-2 will be capable of putting a 14-tonne payload into low Earth orbit.

References

Space launch vehicles of China VTVL rockets Proposed reusable launch systems {{rocket-stub