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 astrona ...

company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both

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 ...

s and

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...

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

satellite internet Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high dat ...

project and also the

CNSA China National Space Administration (CNSA; ) is the government agency of the People's Republic of China that is responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation, including organizing or leading foreign exchanges ...

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. 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 2015 by Kang Yonglai 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

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

of the Tianhou 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 round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

capital raise. The company secured

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

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

, a kerolox-propellant vehicle with a payload capacity to orbit exceeding , during 2021–22.

Technology

Space Pioneer is developing reusable spaceflight technology rather than the traditional

expendable ''Expendable'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.Avon Books; HarperCollins Canada; SFBC/AvoNova. Paperback edition 1997, Eos Books. It i ...

rocket technology developed by the national governments of every spacefaring nation prior to the 2010s, including China. Both

s and

s are being designed for reuse.

Rockets

Tianlong-1 is a

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 ...

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 ...

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

exceeding . Tianlong-2, another launch vehicle designed by the company, will enter service in early 2023. It is 32.8m tall, and it can lift up to 2t to LEO and 1.5t to 500km SSO.

Engines

;Tianhuo-1 Tianhuo-1 (TH-1) was the initial Space Pioneer rocket engine, with hot-fire ground testing completed before 2020. ;Tianhuo-2 Tianhuo-2 (TH-2) was developed subsequent to Tianhuo-1, with the first hot fire test of the engine was in early 2020. ;Tianhuo-3 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 syst ...

. 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.

References

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

History

Technology

Rockets

Engines

See also

References