Talent is the driving force for the development of an industry and the most important part of all production factors. Since the establishment of Blue Arrow Aerospace in 2015, China’s private rocketry has officially entered its second decade. The flow of core talents has affected the rise and fall of the company and witnessed the changes in the industry.<\/p>\n
Today let\u2019s talk about who is the \u201cWhampoa Military Academy\u201d in China\u2019s private rocket field? <\/p>\n
01<\/p>\n
The “starting point” of China’s private rockets<\/p>\n
Most discussions about who is the “Whampoa Military Academy” of China’s private rockets will mention two companies, Blue Arrow Aerospace and Zero One Space.<\/p>\n
As the two earliest private rocket companies in China, Blue Arrow and Zero-One were established only 2 months apart. The two companies are the earliest established, have the most seniority, and have the most profound influence on the entrepreneurial philosophy of Chinese private rocket companies.<\/p>\n
(Picture: Blue Arrow Aerospace\u2019s Zhuque-2 improved rocket before takeoff Source: Blue Arrow Aerospace)<\/p>\n
Before “building rockets”, Shu Chang, the founder of Zero One Space, was a professional investor and had worked for the Aerospace Technology Group Aerospace Industry Fund and Lenovo Holdings. Based on a deep understanding of China\u2019s aerospace industry and its high-profile claim to be China\u2019s SpaceX, the talents discovered by Lingyi can now be said to be responsible for half of China\u2019s private rocket camp.<\/p>\n
As China’s first private rocket company that is professionally and systematically engaged in launch vehicle research and development, Blue Arrow’s research and development philosophy of “from solid to liquid, from small rocket to large rocket” has influenced almost all Chinese private rocket companies in the future.<\/p>\n
02<\/p>\n
Who is the “Whampoa Military Academy” of China’s private rockets?<\/p>\n
Blue Arrow or Zero One?<\/p>\n
Zero One Space and Blue Arrow Aerospace are the companies in the private aerospace field that have the most rocket companies founded after their core teams leave.<\/p>\n
An interesting fact is that Shu Chang, the founder of Zero One Space, was also a founding team member of Blue Arrow. However, due to different ideas, he parted ways with Blue Arrow and founded Zero One Space.<\/p>\n
(Picture: Zero-One Space office area Source: Zero-One Space)<\/p>\n
In addition to Shu Chang, another person who left Blue Arrow and started his own business was Kang Yonglai, who had participated in the Zhuque-1 project as Blue Arrow’s CTO. After the failure of the Zhuque-1 launch, Kang Yonglai left Blue Arrow and founded Tianbing Technology, and led the team to successfully develop China’s first liquid rocket that successfully entered orbit, Tianlong 2.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Ge Minghe, who had served as general manager of the power R&D department and project commander, general manager of the CEO office, and vice president of Blue Arrow Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., resigned from Blue Arrow Aerospace and founded the rocket company Xianden Aerospace as a co-founder. Ge Minghe joined Blue Arrow Aerospace in 2017 and worked at the Beijing 11th Institute of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology.<\/p>\n
There are more people who have entered the field of rocket entrepreneurship after leaving Zero One Space. The most famous one is Huo Liang, the founder of Deep Blue Aerospace, who just completed the B4 round of 500 million yuan in financing some time ago.<\/p>\n
(Picture: Deep Blue Space Nebula-1\u2019s high-altitude vertical recovery test failed. Source: Deep Blue Space)<\/p>\n
Huo Liang received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2011. His mentor was Liu Baicheng, a well-known manufacturing expert. After graduation, he worked at the Second Academy of Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, responsible for the overall design of the hypersonic vehicle structure. He later joined Zero One Space as the vice president and founded Deep Blue Aerospace in 2017.<\/p>\n
Chen Xiaojun, the former CTO of Zero One Space, left in February 2017 to found Shenzhou Wuxing Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., which is engaged in the research and development of liquid rocket engines; Chen Xiaojun\u2019s successor Wang Yudong founded Lingkong Tianxing in 2018. Developed the Tianxing series of rockets and transformed into the drone industry in 2025; Liang Jianjun, the founder of Netcom Star Exploration, also joined Zero One Space; Shen Yongbin, the power manager of Zero One Space, resigned to join Kyushu Cloud Arrow as a partner and technical director.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the “Whampoa Military Academy” in China’s private rocket field, Zero-One Space should be well-deserved.<\/p>\n
03<\/p>\n
Looking at the development of China’s private rockets from the perspective of talent flow<\/p>\n
The flow of core talents is not a rare thing in the past ten years of private rocket entrepreneurship. It is common for people to leave their jobs and start new businesses. For example: Wei Yi, the former vice president of Interstellar Glory, left to found Arrow Technology; Chen Shuguang, the former director of the electrical control department of Interstellar Glory, founded Dahangjian; Tang Wen, the former head of the power structure of Interstellar Glory, founded Yushi Space; Li Wei, the former deputy chief engineer of the solid rocket of Galaxy Power, served as the CTO of Qianyi Aerospace; Sun Mu’s team, the former head of Tianbing Technology’s power, founded Zhihang Technology; Han Fei, the former Lingke Aerospace team, founded Inertial Leap (later acquired by Zhongke Aerospace); <\/p>\n
Liu Changbo, the former chief engineer and co-founder of Deep Blue Aerospace Power, founded Star Line.<\/p>\n
(Picture: Interstellar Glory Hyperbola 1 before launch Source: Interstellar Glory)<\/p>\n
In the past 10 years, China’s private rockets have developed from scratch. As the “Whampoa Military Academy” in China’s private rocket field, Zero-One Aerospace has completed its historical mission from 0 to 1 from another perspective, and even overfulfilled the advancement from 1 to 10. However, the cost was that Zero-One’s own development was forced to withdraw from launch vehicle research and development due to long-term turmoil in the core team.<\/p>\n
According to statistics from Nihao Space, there are 34 private rocket companies registered in China. The seemingly prosperous private rocket industry has not delivered very impressive results in the past 10 years. Although China has now reached 6 private rockets in orbit, they are still dominated by small capacity and solid rockets. The largest Suzaku 2 has a capacity of only 6 tons. In the same period, SpaceX (2020) has completed the large-scale recycling and reuse of Falcon 9.<\/p>\n
(Picture: Falcon 9 rocket takes off Source: SpaceX)<\/p>\n
In addition, among these 34 companies, 10 rocket companies, including Zero One Space, have withdrawn from the launch vehicle research and development track due to brain drain or shortage issues, and 13 rocket companies were established after 2020 and are in the “PPT” stage due to lack of start-up funds.<\/p>\n
Judging from the above situation, the reasons for the slow development of China’s private rockets are obvious: the large-scale flow of core talents has caused slow progress or even suspension of large-scale projects, and repeated low-tech competition has caused a waste of core resources such as talents and funds.<\/p>\n
In 2025, China has 8 recyclable rockets announced to make their first flights, but the industry generally predicts that no more than 3 will successfully make their first flights. Until China has its own SpaceX, this false prosperity that is \u201cblooming everywhere\u201d seems to be going on for some time.<\/p>\n
(Picture: 8 recyclable rockets that will fly for the first time in 2025. Drawing: Hello Space) <\/p>\n
Once a company is able to break this situation and achieve breakthroughs in transportation capacity and cost, the concentration of resources brought about by the Matthew Effect will quickly break the existing balance, and China’s SpaceX will emerge as the times require.<\/p>\n
1879<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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