Chinese commercial space flight developer OneSpace is on a roll these days. From a successful suborbital launch shared with fellow commercial space flight manufacturer iSpace, it's also successfully secured funding for future launches. This is the same funding that made the first space launch possible.
The first launch, initiated from the Jiuquan launch site, was followed by another from iSpace. The company used the OS-X1, known to most media as the Chongqing Liangjiang Star. According to Space, the OS-X1 can reach up to 500 km. in altitude. It also became one of the first commercially-completed flights, with an anonymous customer requesting an altitude for their payload, and was accomplished by the rocket company with no problems.
The iSpace rocket Hypebrola-1Z followed a few days later. It's similar to the OS-X1 in size and lifted off from the launch site in Jiuquan. This was iSpace's second successfully completed flight.
OneSpace and iSpace shared a common history with one another-both were founded in 2014. It was to complete a requirement set by the government for private spaceflight operators not different from what SpaceX and Virgin Intergalactic is doing in the US.
OneSpace, for its part, secured funding for its operations from CICC Jiatai Equity Fund, along with China Merchants Venture Capital, FinTrek Capital, and the Qianhai group. A total of $116 million was collected by OneSpace, a big amount dating back to when it was first founded in 2015.
Space News reports that the company entered a space race of sorts with 'sister company' iSpace. iSpace was first to launch a rocket-the Hyperbola-1S, in a commercial capacity. OneSpace, after the successful testing of the OS-X rocket, launched the OS-X1 with no problems. The OS-X, OneSpace claims, is the first of its kind in the Chinese commercial rocket sector.
The rocket launch from Jiuquan was a big moment for the Chinese private space rocket sector. Lan Tianyi, Ultimate Blue Nebula Co. Ltd. The founder said that it gave positive signs to the commercial spaceflight sector in China. It also showed that the government was willing to let commercial space flight companies use government resources as needed, in support of creating a healthy space commerce environment.
It was also a positive sign of how far the private space rocket sector in China had grown, a positive effect of the maturity of China's own space program.
