LinkSpace | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | 2014 |
Founder | Hu Zhenyu, Yan Chengyi, and Wu Xiaofei |
Headquarters | |
Website | linkspace.com.cn |
LinkSpace [1] ( Chinese: 翎客航天 [2] [3]; pinyin: Líng-kè Hángtiān; lit. 'LINK Aerospace') or Link Space Aerospace Technology Inc. is a Chinese private space launch company based in Beijing. It is led by CEO Hu Zhenyu, [4] and founded as the first private rocket firm in China. [5] The company was founded in 2014, by Hu Zhenyu, a graduate of South China University of Technology; Yan Chengyi, a graduate of Tsinghua University; and Wu Xiaofei, a manufacturing expert. The company is registered in Shenzhen. [6]
In 2013, before the official registration of the company, Hu's team was testing the KC-SA-TOP suborbital rocket with 50 kg (110 lb) payloads in Horqin Left Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. [5] [6]
LinkSpace launched a new prototype for a reusable rocket in Eastern China. The launch took place on April 2, 2019. [7]
LinkSpace has built flying vertical-takeoff/vertical-landing (VTVL) prototype test rockets, to develop its reusable rocket technology. By July 2016, it achieved hover flight with a single-engine thrust-vectored rocket. By September 2017, it had built three hovering rockets, tested in Shandong Province. [4]
On 19 April 2019, the VTVL prototype test rocket RLV-T5 flew to a height of 40 m (131 ft) and landed safely after thirty seconds of flight. [8] RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is 8.1 m (27 ft) in length, weighs 1.5 t (1,100 lbs) and has five liquid engines. [9]
On 10 August 2019 the company reported a test flight reaching a height of 300 meters. [10]
On 5 May 2022, the company announced that it had conducted a static fire test of its RLV-T6 test vehicle in preparation for a 100 km (62 mi) altitude test flight in late 2022, but in September it was expected to be launched no earlier than mid-2023. [11] The rocket will launch from Lenghu, in Qinghai Province. [12]
The New Line 1 (Xin Gan Xian 1; Chinese: 新干线一号; pinyin: xīn gàn xiàn 1) is a two-stage rocket under development to launch microsats and nanosats, with a reusable first stage. It is to be a liquid-fuelled rocket, with a diameter of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), height of 20 m (66 ft). It would have a lift-off mass of 33 t (32 long tons; 36 short tons) and take-off thrust of 400 kN (90,000 lbf), allowing a payload of 200 kg (440 lb) to be lifted into a Sun synchronous orbit (SSO) of 249–550 km (155–342 mi) high. [13]
The first stage would have four liquid engines, fueled by kerolox ( liquid oxygen and kerosene), each producing 100 kN (22,000 lbf) of thrust. [14] It is projected to have an initial launch cost of $4.5 million, dropping to $2.25 million using a reused first stage. [13] As of the end of 2017, the main rocket engine has been tested over 200 times, and first launch was planned for 2020. [15]
Future development of a reusable second stage, in addition to the reusable first stage, is anticipated for in a future vehicle, such as New Line 3. [4]
LinkSpace is planning to also be a transport and rocket services company, providing rocket parts, and transportation. As part of the transportation, it will not just send payloads into orbit, or on suborbital jaunts; it also plans to send packages from one point on Earth to another point. This is similar to SpaceX's plan for suborbital rocket passenger transport anywhere around the world with Starship. [16]
LinkSpace is in competition with several other Chinese space rocket startups, being LandSpace, Galactic Energy, ExPace, i-Space, OneSpace and Deep Blue Aerospace. [17] With rocket reusability and point-to-point transport, it is similar to SpaceX. [16]