China targets SpaceX’s reusable rocket leadership, seeks to replace Jeff Bezos as Elon Musk’s top space rival | Mint

China aims to loosen Elon Musk’s grip on reusable launch vehicles – and close the growing technology gap with the US.

Beijing is turning to aerospace startups and state-owned enterprises to develop expertise in rockets that can be used dozens of times to carry satellites into low Earth orbit.

One company trying to meet this challenge is LandSpace Technology Corp., whose Zhuque-3 reusable rocket successfully completed a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) vertical takeoff and landing return test flight at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Wednesday. According to Chinese state media, this is “an important breakthrough in China’s commercial space industry” and is “an important step toward achieving high capacity, low cost, high frequency and reusability in future space launches.”

Another startup working in this direction is Deep Blue, a closely related firm that plans to test a reusable rocket this week. A successful demonstration would take it one step closer to providing a regular orbital deployment service similar to that provided by SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX is setting the pace for the rest of the space industry, said Huo Liang, chief executive of Jiangsu Deep Blue Aerospace Technology Co. “Their rockets are now flying regularly, and repeatedly carrying out commercial missions, while China has yet to master this technology.”

China’s space program has matched NASA’s with multiple landings on the moon and Mars, but it has not kept pace with developing rockets that can be used repeatedly. It is not alone. Most other Asian, European and Russian spacecraft also rely on single-use launch vehicles, giving Musk’s SpaceX a near monopoly on the global market.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC has begun work with its reusable New Shepard rocket, which makes sub-orbital missions that carry passengers into space for a few minutes. His larger New Glenn rocket, designed to deliver satellites into orbit and fly at least 25 times, is expected to launch in November, four years behind schedule.

Since 2017, SpaceX has been reusing boosters from its rockets, enabling it to offer low-cost launches at rapid intervals and build a network of more than 6,000 satellites for its worldwide Starlink internet service.

This gives it – and the US – a huge cost advantage over single-use rockets, allowing a steady pace of launches throughout the year.

Chinese companies say they are on the cusp of continued success, with rockets like Deep Blue’s Nebula-1 or similar prototypes under development. Just as the country has come to dominate manufacturing in many other industries, mass production of rockets is another target to conquer. The goal is not just to match SpaceX, but to beat it at its own game.

Deep Blue is planning an orbital launch by next year as it works on fixing kinks in its rocket.

“When the reusable Chinese rocket is built, it will be significantly cheaper than the Falcon 9,” said Carter Palmer, principal space systems analyst at Forecast International, an aerospace and defense market research firm based in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Accident on the mountain

It may take some time for this to happen.

Even if China’s rocket makers succeed in initial tests, rapid deployment of reusable rockets will take time and multiple test cycles. And as companies tinker with their technology, there are also failures, such as a test in June when Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., also known as Space Pioneer, crashed a rocket into a hill 1.5 kilometers from the launch pad.

Europe’s Airbus SE-Safran SA joint ventureAerionGroup, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and the U.S. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., have been struggling to come up with their own reusability strategies. They would allow for more launches and help reduce the cost and manufacturing time for each rocket.

Mitsubishi Heavy aims to eventually introduce a reusable launch vehicle, but CEO Seiji Izumisawa told Bloomberg Television on June 21, “We are not yet at the stage of developing anything concrete.”

For China, it’s a matter of civic pride and national security. President Xi Jinping’s government wants a healthy commercial space industry that can meet domestic needs and compete with the United States for customers and influence around the world.

“They’re going to offer this as one of the benefits of being on China’s side in this great power competition: ‘You don’t have to rely on the United States for things like this,’” said Oriana Skyler Mastro, a center fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Beijing also wants to counter SpaceX’s increasingly ubiquitous Starlink, which has played a major role in conflict zones such as Ukraine and is bringing reliable internet service to much of the underdeveloped world. China needs reusable rockets to build satellite networks in low-Earth orbit and for other projects ranging from a lunar research base to an orbital solar power station, said Peter Garretson, senior fellow in defense studies at the American Foreign Policy Council.

“All of these plans require a tremendous ability to move large amounts of mass across the solar system and you can’t do it economically without reusable launch,” he said. “Reusability is an absolute cornerstone in China’s space economic development plan.”

Gobi Desert Trial

Several Chinese companies, such as LandSpace and Deep Blue, are racing to match Musk by developing reusable rockets.

Subsidiaries of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) conducted similar tests earlier this year. A test was conducted in June in the Gobi Desert under the auspices of CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, with the goal of making the first flight to space with a reusable rocket by 2025.

Beijing-based LandSpace has said commercial flights will begin in 2025. Other Chinese companies working on reusable rockets include Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology Co. and Orienspace, which hopes to launch its reusable Gravity-2 rocket by early 2026, co-CEO Yao Song told Bloomberg in February.

LandSpace, Galactic Energy and Orienspace did not respond to requests for comment. The two state-owned companies also did not respond.

Certainly, China’s deep pockets are fueling its space industry. Last year, the government spent $14 billion on its space program, according to the CIA’s World Factbook, most of which went to state-owned enterprises such as CASC and CASIC. Private Chinese space companies are subsidized through investments by government-backed funds and the use of publicly funded launch facilities. In February, the government announced the opening of a reusable rocket technology center in Beijing to help startups.

“In terms of emphasis, look at other countries or adversaries. Where are they investing? They’re investing in space,” Tim Keating, chief strategy officer at Sierra Space, said Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual aerospace summit in Washington. “In fact, I think China is way ahead of us. You look at the investment and you’ll see it’s not just being done for somebody’s health. So I would say that’s a sign that we have a problem.”

Deep Blue in July announced it had raised about 1 billion yuan ($141 million) from Chinese investors such as the government-backed high-tech zone in the city of Wuxi, near Shanghai. In January, rival Orienspace raised about 600 million yuan in a funding round that also included a fund from another local government. And Galactic Energy said last December it had raised 1.1 billion yuan from local investors.

But while China’s government has been very supportive of the sector, it remains to be seen whether the country can create a national champion capable of beating SpaceX at its own game, said Jianwei Li, managing partner at Zhencheng Capital, a Beijing-based Chinese venture capital firm that is an investor in Deep Blue.

“Every company says they want to be the SpaceX of China, but we have to be realistic. Not everyone is doing so well,” Li said.