Space Pioneer

Space Pioneer—also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd.—is a Chinese aerospace company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both launch vehicles and liquid rocket engines—to access the market for low-cost space launch services. The company is aiming to meet launch requirements for both the Chinese national satellite internet project and also the CNSA solicitation for resupply of the Tiangong space station.^[1]

The stated mission of Space Pioneer is to "pursue new breakthroughs in technology and performance, [and] to select a technological path based on the needs of the commercial market to improve launch efficiency and reduce launch costs."^[2]

History[]

Space Pioneer was founded in 2015^[3] by Kang Yonglai^[2]

The company completed two funding rounds in 2019, including a ZJU Joint Innovation investment,^[3] to continue liquid bipropellant engine development of the Tianhou series of rocket engines.

In April 2020, the company raised US$14 million in order to complete development of its 30 tf (66,000 lbf) liquid rocket engine Tianhuo-3, which had begun igniter hot fire tests in 2019.^[3] This was followed in September with a "multiple hundreds of millions of yuan" (CN¥millions) Series A capital raise.^[2]

The company secured US$30 million venture capital funding in a pre-B funding round in July 2021. The funds will be used to complete initial development of the Tianlong-1 reusable launch vehicle, a kerolox-propellant vehicle with a payload capacity to orbit exceeding 3 tonnes (6,600 lb), during 2021–22.^[1]

Technology[]

Space Pioneer is developing reusable spaceflight technology rather than the traditional expendable rocket technology developed by the national governments of every spacefaring nation prior to the 2010s, including China. Both launch vehicles and liquid rocket engines are being designed for reuse.

Rockets[]

Tianlong-1 is a kerosene-liquid oxygen (kerolox) fueled vehicle using the Tianhou-3 engine, with a payload capacity to low Earth orbit exceeding 3 tonnes (6,600 lb).^[1]

Engines[]

Tianhuo-1

Tianhuo-1 was the initial Space Pioneer rocket engine, with hot-fire ground testing completed before 2020.^[2]

Tianhuo-2

Tianhuo-2 was developed subsequent to Tianhuo-1, with the first hot fire test of the engine was in early 2020.^[3]^[2]

Tianhuo-3

Tianhuo-3 (TH-3) is a keroxox liquid-bipropellant rocket engine with 30 tonnes-force (66,000 lbf) of thrust. It is intended to be the main engine for the Tianlong-1 launch vehicle.^[3] The engine had its first hot-fire test in December 2020, with a 50-second duration ground test run.^[4]

References[]

^ ^a ^b ^c Jones, Andrew (27 July 2021). "Chinese rocket company Space Pioneer secures major funding ahead of first launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Chinese Commercial Rocket Startup Space Pioneer Secures Series A". China Money Network. 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Jones, Andrew (14 April 2020). "Space Pioneer raises $14 million to develop green liquid rocket engines". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
^ "Tianbing technology's "Tianhuo 3" 30 ton liquid rocket engine has completed its first test run". EqualOcean. 29 July 2021. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021.

This corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[sn20210727-1] Jones, Andrew (27 July 2021). "Chinese rocket company Space Pioneer secures major funding ahead of first launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 July 2021.

[cmn20200917-2] "Chinese Commercial Rocket Startup Space Pioneer Secures Series A". China Money Network. 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.

[sn20200414-3] Jones, Andrew (14 April 2020). "Space Pioneer raises $14 million to develop green liquid rocket engines". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 July 2021.

[4] "Tianbing technology's "Tianhuo 3" 30 ton liquid rocket engine has completed its first test run". EqualOcean. 29 July 2021. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021.

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Current	Angara A5 Antares 230+ Ariane 5 Atlas V Ceres-1 Delta IV Heavy Electron Epsilon Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha^† GSLV Mk II Mk III H-IIA Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11^† Kaituozhe 2 LauncherOne Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 7 7A 8 11 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri^† OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qased Rocket 3 Shavit 2 Simorgh^† Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v Unha Vega Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque-1^†
In development	Amur Angara 1.2 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Eris Firefly Beta H3 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 921 rocket 9 Miura 5 Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Red Dwarf SLS Block 1 Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 SSLV Starship Terran 1 R Vega C E Vulcan Zero Zhuque-2 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Diamant Dnepr Energia Europa^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout Shavit original Shavit 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)