{"id":10517,"date":"2022-05-14T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/chinese-startup-suffers-third-consecutive-launch-failure\/"},"modified":"2022-05-14T01:21:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:21:11","slug":"chinese-startup-suffers-third-consecutive-launch-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/chinese-startup-suffers-third-consecutive-launch-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese startup suffers third consecutive launch failure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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File photo of a Hyperbola 1 rocket undergoing launch preparations. Credit: i-Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A small satellite launcher developed by the Chinese startup iSpace failed to place its Earth observing payload into orbit Friday, the third consecutive failure for the company\u2019s Hyperbola 1 rocket.<\/p>\n

The solid-fueled Hyperbola 1 launcher took off from the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China at 3:09 a.m. EDT (0709 GMT) Friday, or 3:09 p.m. Beijing time. But China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency said the rocket encountered \u201cabnormal performance\u201d during the flight.<\/p>\n

The cause of the failure is under investigation, Xinhua said.<\/p>\n

The Hyperbola 1 rocket is one of a growing number of small Chineses launchers developed on a commercial model. A successful Hyperbola 1 mission in 2019 made iSpace the first firm outside China\u2019s traditional state-owned space industry to launch a payload into orbit.<\/p>\n

But iSpace has now suffered three consecutive launch failures. Engineers upgraded the Hyperbola 1 rocket after the 2019 mission, and two iSpace launches failed to place satellites into orbit in February and August of last year.<\/p>\n

The payload on Friday\u2019s failed launch was believed to be a high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite for the Chinese Jilin 1 remote sensing constellation.<\/p>\n

The Hyperbola 1 rocket \u2014 also called the SQX-1 \u2014 is a four-stage rocket capable of deploying a payload of up to 660 pounds, or 300 kilograms, to a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit, according to iSpace. The Hyperbola 1 stands approximately 78 feet (24 meters) tall, and produces about 173,000 pounds of liftoff thrust.<\/p>\n

Enabled by a policy change in 2014 to permit the flow of private capital in China\u2019s launch industry, companies like iSpace established in the last few years have quickly fielded small solid-fueled launchers. Many, or all, of the first generation of privately-funded Chinese launchers appear to use rocket motors derived from Chinese ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

In 2020, another Chinese launch company named Galactic Energy became the second Chinese startup managed independently from the country\u2019s legacy state-owned space contractors to launch a rocket into Earth orbit. Galactic Energy\u2019s second launch of its Ceres 1 satellite booster was also successful in 2021.<\/p>\n

Two other companies, LandSpace and OneSpace, have launched orbital-class rockets unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s traditional state-owned space industry contractors have also branched out to develop small satellite launch vehicles. China Rocket, a spinoff of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, or CALT, successfully launched the orbital-class solid-fueled Jielong rocket in 2019.<\/p>\n

CALT also has developed and launched the solid-fueled Long March 11 rocket 13 times, all successfully. Another state enterprise in China\u2019s government-dominated space industry, called CASIC, operates the Kuaizhou 1 and Kuaizhou 11 solid-fueled launch vehicles.<\/p>\n

Many of the new wave of Chinese launch companies, including iSpace, are planning more powerful liquid-fueled rockets to carry heavier satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

The Hyperbola 2 rocket under development by iSpace is designed to be reusable, with its first and second stages driven by engines fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. The Hyperbola 2 rocket will stand 92 feet (28 meters) tall, and its first stage attempt a propulsive landing, allowing iSpace to recover, refurbish, and reuse the booster.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File photo of a Hyperbola 1 rocket undergoing launch preparations. Credit: i-Space A small satellite launcher developed by the Chinese startup iSpace failed to place its Earth observing payload into orbit Friday, the third consecutive failure for the company\u2019s Hyperbola 1 rocket. The solid-fueled Hyperbola 1 launcher took off from the Jiuquan space center in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}