China's LandSpace readies satellite launch with methane rocket

[December 04, 2023]   BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing-based LandSpace Technology, one of China's private space companies, is preparing to launch a satellite payload to orbit in the first commercial test of its rocket powered by liquid fuel using methane and oxygen.

Investors and rocket developers have said methane could offer a way to help slash costs and support reusable rockets.

LandSpace's Zhuque-2 Y-3 carrier rocket was transferred to the launch area of a space facility in the Gobi Desert on Friday and is readying for launch, the company said on its Weibo social media account.

The company did not specify a launch window for the rocket, which will blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia.

LandSpace did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

Chinese commercial space firms have rushed into the sector since 2014, when the government allowed private investment in an industry now dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

LandSpace was one of the earliest and best funded of the Chinese space startups aiming to tap into the demand for rocket launches amid growing competition to form clusters of low-orbit satellites as an alternative to Musk's Starlink.

In July, LandSpace hit a benchmark in that race with the launch of the world's first methane-liquid oxygen rocket, the Zhuque-2 Y-2, putting China ahead of U.S. rivals including SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Founded in 2015, LandSpace has secured funding from investors including venture capital firm HongShan, known at that time as Sequoia Capital China, the investment arm of Chinese property developer Country Garden and the state-backed China SME Development Fund.

LandSpace's latest announced fundraising was in 2020 when it raised 1.2 billion yuan ($168.14 million). The company had fundraising rounds of undisclosed sizes since, Chinese company record tracking database Tianyancha showed.

In July, LandSpace founder and CEO Zhang Changwu told Chinese publication Yicai the company had started developing reusable rockets and expected to conduct a test launch in the second half of 2025.

LandSpace rival OrienSpace, founded in 2020, said it plans to launch its first rocket, Gravity-1, based on solid fuel, in December.

($1 = 7.1368 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ella Cao, Roxanne Liu and Bernard Orr; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Miral Fahmy)

[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.