Space Pioneer Refines 2025 Plans
The launch company is aiming to debut its reusable launch vehicle in a few months.
In Beijing on February 18th, the “Industrial Empowerment and Win-Win Cooperation” 2025 Liangxi District and Liangxi Science and Technology City Aerospace Industry Development Forum (产业赋能 合作共赢”2025年无锡市梁溪区、梁溪科技城空天产业发展恳谈会) was held with various private space companies present, notably one day after top CPC officials met private industry. This event was held in the city of Wuxi’s (無錫市) Municipal People’s Government liaison office. Liangxi district is part of the city which is in Souther Jiangsu Province (江苏) bordering Shanghai1.
Among the private space entities representatives present, Space Pioneer’s Co-founder and Vice President Luo Yi (罗毅) was attending the event to represent his company. A comment by Luo Yi, regarding plans for 2025, from the event was shared as follows:
“Space Pioneer has now completed sixteen rounds of financing of more than four billion yuan, mainly three self-developed engines, and will complete the first flight of Tianlong-3 in June this year. In Liangxi Aerospace Industrial Park, the Space Pioneer Liquid Rocket Development Base has been completed and will have the manufacturing capacity of twenty Tianlong-2 rockets per year. In the future, relying on the complete commercial aerospace industry chain layout of Liangxi District and use the localized supply chain will be up to fifty percent of the total rocket cost.”
If there are any problems with this translation please reach out and correct me.
Prior to the symposium, it was already known that Tianlong-32 would make its debut this year but with it now expected in June the launch vehicle’s first mission has been delayed a month. It is unknown what has caused the delay but it could be a schedule conflict at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site or slow progress on Space Pioneer’s launchpad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Despite Tianlong-3 nearing launch, Space Pioneer is aiming to continue flying its smaller Tianlong-2 rocket. Tianlong-23 has not flown since April 2023 for its first mission. Despite this with a manufacturing capacity of twenty rockets per year the company may be aiming to diversify its launch offerings. Additionally, having around fifty percent of the supply chain, based on cost, local to their manufacturing operations will help streamline the production of the rocket.
Back in early December At the 2024 Science and Technology Innovation Conference (2024科创大会), in Shanghai, Space Pioneer’s General Manager of Rocket Research and Development as well as Chief Launch Vehicle Designer, Liu Xinglong (刘兴隆), spoke about the company’s launch plans for 2025, on behalf of Kang Yonglai (康永来), Space Pioneer’s Founder and Chairman, who could not attend.
Liu began his December presentation by focusing on three areas: trends in commercial aerospace, satellite trends, and China’s opportunities. He highlighted that since 2017, the global launch cadence has exploded, with SpaceX alone launching over sixty percent of the world’s satellites due to the low-cost Falcon 9. Satellites are also actively coming down in cost while increasing onboard capacity and increasing production to enable constellations for navigation, communication, and Earth observation. Although compared to the U.S. commercial space market, Liu believes there is vast room for growth in both launch cadence and satellite manufacturing.
Regarding Tianlong-3’s debut, Liu stated that the maiden flight, saying it was set for May, will carry three satellites into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. Five more flights will then follow between June and November heading to an 800-kilometer 89-degree inclination orbit. Rocket reuse or any recovery tests were not mentioned.
Liu did not mention where Tianlong-3’s maiden flight would occur but Ma Lei (马磊), Deputy General Manager of Space Pioneer’s Hainan subsidiary, told People’s Daily that the vehicle would fly from Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site soon, with no specific timeline. Space Pioneer is working on a launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center too.
Based on the orbit and stated carrying capacity, it is likely that the following five flights will be carrying batches of Qianfan satellites, for as many as thirty-six per launch.
With the maiden flight pushed back one month, it’s unknown if one or more of the later flights is now either no longer happening or if the window for the flights has been extended into December. Whatever the new plan is launching Tianlong-3 more than once in 2025 would be an impressive feat for the company.
In the future, Space Pioneer still has a tri-core version and a point-to-point transportation system based on Tianlong-3 in its plans. The tri-core Tianlong-3 is planned to be able to lift up to 68,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit while increasing the vehicle’s height to 88 meters due to a stretched second-stage. A point-to-point transportation version of the rocket will have the second-stage and fairing replaced by a spaceplane that could send thirty passengers anywhere on Earth within forty-five minutes.
About Space Pioneer
Space Pioneer (天兵科技), also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co Ltd (北京天兵科技有限公司), was founded in 2019 by Kang Yonglai (康永来) to develop reusable liquid fuelled launch vehicles. To date, the company has raised 4 billion Yuan, approximately 550 million United States Dollars (as of February 20th), through sixteen funding rounds.
So far the company has flown once, intentionally4, for Tianlong-2’s debut flight back in April 2023, delivering a single satellite to sun-synchronous orbit.
Shanghai is home to many space companies, for both launch and satellite services. In recent years Shanghai-based space companies have expanded into surrounding regions to utilize a local government-backed space cluster development plan.
Tianlong-3 is a two-stage liquid-fuelled partially reusable launch vehicle expected to be capable of carrying 17,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.
Tianlong-2 is a two-stage liquid-fuelled launch vehicle capable of carrying 2,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit.
At the end of June 2024, Tianlong-3’s first-stage broke free during a static fire, flying for roughly thirty seconds before crashing into a mountainside. No one was harmed or killed, minor property damage was caused.