On August 25, Beijing-based i-Space, also known as Space Honor (星际荣耀), announced the completion of RMB 1,192.5 million in Series B financing, which is the highest single round of financing in China's commercial space industry.
The round of financing was led by Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center, with other investors including Sequoia Capital China, CITIC Securities, China Merchants Securities, Matrix Partners China, CDH Investments.
i-Space said the round of financing will mainly be used for the development of Shuang Quxian series launch vehicles, the development of Jiaodian series reusable liquid oxygen methane engines and the construction and training of human resources.
On July 25 last year, the i-Space-developed Shuang Quxian I Yao I small solid launch vehicle was successfully launched at China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, becoming the first private company in China to complete the launch mission of a launch vehicle into orbit.
On May 27 this year, the "JD-1" reusable liquid oxygen methane engine, made by Chinese private space launch company i-Space, also known as Space Honor, completed the second start long-range 500-second test.
Chinese private space launch firm makes breakthrough in key rocket recovery technology
This marks JD-1 as China's first liquid oxygen methane engine with secondary launch capability, and also means that i-Space has broken through another core technology of vertical launch vehicle recovery, laying a solid foundation for the successful launch of the Double Curve II reusable launch vehicle into orbit.
i-Space said it will carry out the launch of the Shuang Quxian I Yao II launch vehicle this fall.
i-Space is developing a 15-ton reusable liquid oxygen methane engine, Jiaodian-1 (code-named "JD-1"), which has already completed several ground tests, including a full-system long-range test launch, a wide-range continuous variable-thrust test launch and a second-start test launch.
The Jiaodian-1 engine will be installed on Shuang Quxian-2, a reusable launch vehicle developed by i-Space, to perform a 100-km vertical take-off and landing test of the rocket's first sub-stage in 2021, and the first orbital launch in the same year.
