Space Epoch
Overview
Developing a reusable orbital launch vehicle following a SpaceX Starship-influenced structural approach — stainless-steel tankage, liquid methane/oxygen propellant bought in from a third-party engine supplier, and sea-based launch and recovery rather than land-based return, avoiding the overflight-corridor constraints of inland Chinese launch sites.
Moat: Has actually flown and recovered a large stainless-steel methalox test vehicle at sea — a 4.2m-diameter article unusually large for a first hop, meaning the recovery hardware is close to operational scale rather than a sub-scale demonstrator. Its relationship with the Oriental Spaceport gives it maritime launch and recovery infrastructure inland competitors lack.
Business
Primary customers
- Commercial: Not yet disclosed — pre-orbital-flight stage
Sectors
launch-vehicles · reusable-launch-vehicles · space-propulsion · sea-based-launch
Key Products
- Yuanxingzhe-1 verification vehicleoperational
4.2m diameter, 26.8m tall, ~57,000 kg stainless-steel VTVL test article with a single Longyun methalox engine (70 tf thrust) sourced from Jiuzhou Yunjian.
First flight: 2025-05-29
- Yuanxingzhe-1 orbital vehicledevelopment
Two-stage, partially reusable orbital launcher, 4.2m diameter, 64m tall, nine first-stage engines plus one second-stage engine, targeting ~6,500 kg to 1,100 km sun-synchronous orbit with sea-landing first-stage recovery.
Near-term Catalysts
- originally targeted end-2025; not achieved, no confirmed new date as of mid-2026
Maiden orbital flight of Yuanxingzhe-1
The single defining event for the company — everything about its business case above the 2.5 km test-hop altitude is currently unproven.
- 2026
Deployment of the February 2026 Series B into orbital-vehicle production
The round closed but its amount was never disclosed; converting it into hardware progress is the near-term test.
Top Risks
- Has never reached orbit — every claim about the orbital vehicle's performance is unproven above the 2.5 km test-hop altitude achieved in May 2025.
- Schedule slip is already material: an end-2025 maiden orbital flight target has passed with no confirmed new date.
- Engine dependency — its Longyun engine is sourced from Jiuzhou Yunjian rather than built in-house, an existential single point of failure that vertically integrated competitors like LandSpace and Space Pioneer do not carry.
- Crowded field: LandSpace, Space Pioneer, iSpace, Deep Blue Aerospace and CAS Space are all pursuing Chinese reusable launch, several with more capital or in-house engines.
Recent Milestones
- 2026-02-12
Series B closed, amount undisclosed, backed by unnamed 'leading market-oriented institutions'
- 2025-06-04
Recovered Yuanxingzhe-1 test vehicle retrieved and inspected following the sea-recovery hop
- 2025-05-29
Yuanxingzhe-1 verification vehicle performs China's first sea-recovery hop of a large stainless-steel methalox rocket — 2.5 km altitude, 125-second flight, soft splashdown off Haiyang
- 2023-12
Third-round strategic financing completed, amount undisclosed
