16 Science Wednesday, May 1, 2019 ’s rocket start-ups go small in age of ‘shoebox’ satellites Chinese companies approach inexpensive launches LONGKOU, China: During initial tests of their 8.1- try. much like the rockets of Elon Musk’s metre tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from “For suborbital clients, their focus will be on sci- SpaceX. “If you’re a small company and you can LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entific research and some commercial uses. After only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will you have money for, then your profit margins are return. Just in case. But when the -based certainly be on satellites,” Hu said. In the near term, going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, suc- China envisions massive constellations of commer- at US aerospace consultancy Teal Group. cessfully took off and landed last week for the sec- cial satellites that can offer services ranging from “But if you can take that small rocket and make it ond time in two months, no tether was needed. The high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the shipments. Universities conducting experiments and times a month, 50 times a year, then with more vol- ground before descending back to its concrete companies looking to offer remote-sensing and ume, your profit increases,” Caceres added. launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26- communication services are among the potential Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engi- domestic customers for nanosatellites. 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu said. neers - one of whom cart wheeled his way to the A handful of US small-rocket companies are also That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million launch pad in delight. developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket One of the biggest, , has already put 25 Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first satellites in orbit. No private company in China has rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, done that yet. Since October, two - LandSpace and aircraft and is not reusable. LinkSpace plans to con- inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices. OneSpace - have tried but failed, illustrating the dif- duct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recover- Demand for these so-called nanosatellites - which ficulties facing space start-ups everywhere. rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching alti- weigh less than 10 kilograms and are in some cases The Chinese companies are approaching inex- tudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital as small as a shoebox - is expected to explode in pensive launches in different ways. Some, like launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters. The company is in LONGKOU, China: LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepre- OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boost- its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up NewLine Baby, blasts off during a test launch on a vacant plot of neurs reckon there is no better place to develop ers. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of land near the company’s development site in Longkou, inexpensive launch vehicles than their home coun- that return to Earth after delivering their payload, millions of yuan in previous rounds. — Reuters province, China. — Reuters