Private rocket-making firms eye reusability as key growth driver

As a growing number of Chinese private rocket manufacturing companies develop their own launch vehicles, reusability has emerged as a make-or-break factor for their survival and growth.

Galactic Energy, a Beijing-based rocket maker, cleared this critical threshold with the successful maiden flight of its Pallas 1 liquid-propellant rocket, which is designed for reuse.

The launch took place on Sept 1 morning at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The 52-meter rocket lifted off from its dedicated launch tower and soon reached a predetermined orbit, according to Galactic Energy.

The Pallas 1 is the 50th type of carrier rocket China has developed and flown, and the 12th private rocket built and used in the country.

The company said it will use the Pallas 1 to secure orders for large-scale constellation deployment and heavyweight satellite launch services.

The new rocket has a two-stage configuration with an optional upper stage. It has a core-stage diameter of 3.35 meters, a liftoff weight of about 283 metric tons and a liftoff thrust of 350 tons.

The rocket's first stage is powered by seven CQ-50 reusable engines that run on liquid oxygen and kerosene.

According to its designers, the configuration provides substantial fault redundancy while supporting recovery and reuse. If one engine malfunctions, the remaining six can still sustain the flight mission.

Galactic Energy said the Pallas 1 is capable of carrying up to 7 tons of payload to low-Earth orbit, enabling it to meet major demand from commercial satellite operators deploying satellites in such orbits.

Xia Dongkun, executive president of Galactic Energy, said the maiden flight was only the first step toward making the rocket reusable. The mission was deemed successful because it demonstrated that the rocket could reach its intended orbit.

"The second step will involve the gradual verification of first-stage reentry control, grid fin operation, braking deceleration and fixed-point recovery at sea or on land in subsequent flight missions, to realize full vertical landing recovery of the first stage.

"And then the rocket will start high-frequency flight missions while we will continue optimizing reuse and maintenance procedures to keep reducing costs and improving reuse cycles," he said.

Designed for reuse at least 25 times, the Pallas 1 is expected to become a high-efficiency, low-cost "space shuttle" for commercial satellite companies, according to Galactic Energy.

"China is advancing the development and deployment of multiple massive satellite systems, leading to surging demand for rockets. The country is currently faced with a situation of 'more satellites than rockets'. If we rely on expendable rockets, it will be difficult to match production and launch paces," Xia said.

He explained that rocket reusability refers to the recovery and reuse of a rocket's first-stage booster, its most valuable part.

The first stage accounts for about 70 percent of a rocket's launch cost. As a result, the ability to recover the first stage and return it to the launch pad after maintenance and testing can significantly reduce the marginal launch cost of each rocket and shorten the launch cycle, Xia added.

Since the beginning of this year, China has achieved pivotal milestones in reusable rocket technology, with State-backed and commercial players pursuing parallel recovery approaches to meet surging demand for rockets to deploy large-scale satellite networks.

In July, the Long March 10B, a model developed by State-owned conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, completed the world's first sea-based net-capture recovery of an orbital rocket's first stage.

Launched from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan province, the mission marked China's first successful controlled recovery of a carrier rocket. The Long March 10B has become the world's third rocket model to complete all key steps of a full recovery profile: controlled return flight, vertical terminal descent and intact retrieval.

In August, leading private rocket maker LandSpace's ZQ 3 rocket achieved China's first land-based rocket recovery.

Meanwhile, other private companies have been sparing no effort to develop their own reusable rockets in an effort to seize booming business opportunities.

For instance, Space Pioneer is refining its heavy-lift TL 3 reusable rocket following a failed test flight in April, while fellow private firm i-Space has completed key ground validations for its Hyperbola 3 rocket, which is slated for its maiden flight with sea recovery capability later in the year.

Before developing the Pallas 1, Galactic Energy had developed two models, Ceres 1 and Ceres 2, and used them to conduct 24 launches, sending nearly 90 satellites into various orbits.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn