ISpace is planning to conduct 100-kilometer vertical take-off and landing tests with the Hyperbola-2 first stage next year. Hyperbola-2 is to be capable of lifting over 1,100 kilograms of payload into a 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit, or 800 kilograms when the first stage is to be recovered and reused.
This was stated to be used for development of the 28-meter-tall, 3.35-meter-diameter Hyperbola-2 liquid oxygen-methane launcher with a vertically-recovered and reusable first stage.
#Ark orbital space drop series#
Last year iSpace raised $173 million in series B funding. ISpace faces competition in solid light-lift launch services from nominally private Chinese counterparts Galactic Energy and OneSpace, as well as well-funded state-owned enterprise spinoffs Expace, China Rocket and CAS Space. These companies are competing for commercial launch contracts, outside of the activities of China’s main state-owned space contractor, CASC.
The first Hyperbola-1 successfully placed a satellite in orbit in July 2019, making iSpace the first nominally private firm to achieve the feat, following failed attempts from fellow Chinese firms Landspace and Onespace in October 2018 and March 2019 respectively.Īlso known as Interstellar Glory, the firm is one of more than 20 launch vehicle-related firms established in China following a 2014 central government policy shift which opened the launch and small satellite sectors to private capital. Hyperbola-1 has gone through some significant changes between Y1 & Y2 However images of the first and second Hyperbola-1 rockets suggest significant changes in design between the two launches. The launcher has three solid stages with a liquid-propellant fourth stage.
It has a length of 20.8 meters and mass at takeoff of around 31 metric tons. Hyperbola-1 consists of three solid stages with a liquid-propellant fourth stage. The company is now understood to be planning a next Hyperbola-1 launch in the next few months. It stated that the previously existing launch service relationship with iSpace had been amicably terminated in December.īeijing-based iSpace said it will strengthen management and technical capabilities, enhance quality awareness, improve risk identification and take other measures. Ltd., a private space firm, issued a press release ( Chinese ) shortly after launch to refute reports that its Ark-2 satellite was aboard the flight.
The iSpace press release did not reveal the payloads lost on the mission, though a number of small satellites were understood to be onboard. A piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle’s external tank during launch and damaged a wing of the Orbiter, later leading to catastrophe on reentry. The loss of the mission coincidentally followed 18 years to the day of the Columbia disaster. The insulation foam later fell free, resulting an a change of angle of the grid fin and then subsequent rapid change of attitude and breakup of the launch vehicle.
#Ark orbital space drop verification#
An iSpace press release March 1 ( Chinese ) stated that it had completed fault location diagnosis, fault simulation and prediction, test verification and assessment and improvement measures following 28 days of investigation and analysis.Īccording to iSpace a piece of foam insulation, intended to fall off, struck and impeded one of four grid fins at the base of the first stage.
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