Chinese rocket start-ups have a little age



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LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – The Chinese engineers at LinkSpace, a young company run by the country's youngest space contractor, used an early-stage test of their 27-foot high reusable rocket. Kevlar lanyard to ensure safe return. In case.

But when the prototype of the Beijing-based company, called NewLine Baby, took off and landed successfully last week for the second time in two months, no tie was needed.

The 1.5-ton rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending 30 seconds on its concrete launching ramp, relieved by CEO Hu Zhenyu, 26, and his engineers , one of whom made a trip to the launching pad. in joy.

LinkSpace, one of the more than 15 private rocket manufacturers in China, sees these short film jumps as a first step towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites to orbit at affordable prices.

The demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are sometimes as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And Chinese rocket entrepreneurs believe there is no better place to develop inexpensive launchers than their home country.

"For suborbital customers, they will focus on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering into orbit, the short-term goal (of customers) will certainly be to turn to satellites, "Hu said.

In the short term, China plans to create a multitude of commercial satellites capable of offering services ranging from high-speed Internet for aircraft to the monitoring of coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies seeking to provide remote sensing and communication services are potential national customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of small US small rocket companies are also developing launchers before the expected boom. One of the largest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done it yet. Since October, two projects – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties faced by space start-ups.

Chinese companies are tackling low-cost launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, design disposable and cheap boosters. The LinkSpace Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that will return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

"If you're a small business and you can build a very small rocket only because you only have money, your profit margins will be narrower," said Macro Caceres, an badyst at Teal Group, an American firm. aerospace consulting.

"But if you can take this little rocket and make it reusable, and you can run it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, your profit will increase with more volume," added Caceres.

Finally, LinkSpace hopes not to spend more than 30 million yuan ($ 4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

This represents a fraction of the 25 to 30 million dollars needed for the launch of a Pegasus from Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, a small, commonly used rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a plane flying at high altitude and is not reusable.

(Click on reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a set of photos of Chinese rocket startups.) Click on tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive overview of the fledgling industry.)

CASH NEED

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a larger recoverable rocket during the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, said Mr. Hu to Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fund raising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. He had tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in new funding in 2018, companies like LinkSpace are pushing back prototypes, planning more tests and even offering operational launches this year.

The RLV-T5 LinkLpace Reusable Rocket, also known as NewLine Baby, returns to the landing site during a test launch on a vacant lot near the company's development site in Longkou, in New York. Shandong Province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS / Jason Lee

Last year, capital investment in China's space sector companies reached 3.57 billion yuan (533 million US dollars), says Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace, which has seen renewed funding late 2018 .

That accounted for about 18% of global investment in creating space in 2018, a historic record, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate of Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said worldwide space-related investments totaled $ 2.97 billion last year.

"The costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but the financing they need, that it's hundreds of millions, even tens of millions, even a few million yuan, depends on the stage of business development, "Niu said. Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in Beijing-based LandSpace.

Like space launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is to develop a safe and reliable rocket.

State research institutes or the Chinese armed forces have a proven talent for developing such equipment. the government directly supports private companies by allowing them to embark on facilities under military control.

But it's still a high-risk activity, and an unsuccessful launch could kill a business.

"The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially novice entrepreneurs, is the failure" of an attempted theft, said Liang Jianjun, general manager of the Space Trek rocket company . This can affect the team's funding, research, manufacturing and morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, founder of the company late 2017 along with three other former military technical officers.

Despite the failure of Zhuque-1's orbital launch by LandSpace in October, the Beijing-based company secured additional funding of 300 million yuan for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company began operating China's first private rocket production unit in Zhejiang Province, in anticipation of the large-scale production of its Zhuque-2, which is expected to be unveiled next year.

STATE COMPETITION

State defense subcontractors in China are also trying to penetrate the low-cost market.

In December, CASIC (China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp.) successfully launched a low-orbit communications satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC intends to deploy by 2022 to provide broad connectivity. more stable band in rural China and, eventually, in developing countries.

The Hongyun-1 satellite was launched on a rocket provided by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the country's leading space services provider.

In early April, the Chinese Academy of Launch Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed the engine tests of its first Chinese rocket, Dragon, intended solely for commercial use, paving the way for an inaugural flight before July.

The Dragon, much larger than the rockets developed by private companies, is designed to carry several commercial satellites.

At least 35 Chinese private companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite manufacturer based in the southern province of Hunan, plans to put 20 satellites into orbit this year, the first of which is for a foreign customer, Chief Executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

slideshow (27 Images)

The company has only launched 12 rocket launches produced by the state since the beginning of its operations in early 2016.

"When dealing with rocket launches, what matters to us is cost, reliability, and time," Yang said.

Report by Ryan Woo; Additional report by the Beijing Press Room; Edited by Gerry Doyle

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