Astronstone, one of China\u2019s newest commercial space startups, announced it has raised over 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) in early-stage funding to develop a stainless steel, reusable rocket inspired by SpaceX\u2019s Starship system.<\/p>\n
Founded in mid-2024, Astronstone is developing its AS-1 launch vehicle, a 70-meter tall, 4.2-meter diameter rocket powered by a customized version of the 80-ton-thrust Longyun engine from Jiuzhou Yunjian, a commercial Chinese rocket engine manufacturer. The AS-1 features a \u201cchopsticks\u201d style first-stage recovery system designed to catch the returning booster, enabling rapid reuse.<\/p>\n
The rocket is designed to carry up to 15,700 kilograms to low Earth orbit in expendable mode, or 10,000 kilograms when reused. Astronstone projects a launch cost of 10,000 yuan ($1,340) per kilogram with reuse, and 20,000 yuan ($2,680) per kilogram for expendable launches. The company also plans a future, larger AS-2 rocket with an 8-meter diameter.<\/p>\n
The funding round was led by Qiancheng Capital, with additional investments from Huacang Capital and Lingge Ventures. The capital will accelerate development efforts, including rocket R&D and the construction of a production test base. Astronstone states it is \u201cfully aligning its technical approach with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.\u201d<\/p>\n
CEO Tang Wen, a veteran of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) who contributed to Long March 5 and 7 development, outlined challenges in first-stage recovery including precise landing control, synchronization with dynamic recovery arms, and the structural durability of the arms to withstand repeated catches.<\/p>\n
Astronstone\u2019s choice of stainless steel aims to balance the metal\u2019s higher heat resistance and structural strength during atmospheric reentry with its added weight, addressing limitations of traditional aluminum alloys for reusable rockets.<\/p>\n
The startup\u2019s investors highlight China\u2019s commercial space sector\u2019s persistent launch capacity constraints, especially in servicing large-scale satellite constellations like Guowang and Qianfan. \u201cThe pain point in China\u2019s commercial space industry lies in the persistently high costs of heavy-lift liquid rockets, and the massive demand from two megaconstellation projects lacks sufficient commercial rocket capacity,\u201d Qiancheng Capital said.<\/p>\n
Astronstone is among several emerging Chinese companies adopting chopstick-style recovery. Late last year, Cosmoleap secured similar funding for a comparable reusable launcher. Together with Sepoch, these startups represent a new wave in China\u2019s commercial launch sector, competing alongside established firms targeting multiple reusable liquid rocket debut flights this year.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Astronstone, one of China\u2019s newest commercial space startups, announced it has raised over 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) in early-stage funding to develop a stainless steel, reusable rocket inspired by SpaceX\u2019s Starship system. Founded in mid-2024, Astronstone is developing its AS-1 launch vehicle, a 70-meter tall, 4.2-meter diameter rocket powered by a customized version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20305,"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":[6593,312,135,259,316,489],"class_list":["post-20303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-astronstone","tag-casc","tag-china","tag-funding","tag-spacex","tag-startup"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303"}],"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=20303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}