China's Orienspace: Commercial Rocket Launch by Ship—Behind The Scenes

China's Orienspace: Commercial Rocket Launch by Ship—Behind The Scenes

Orienspace, a private Chinese rocket manufacturer, successfully launched the 30-meter-tall Gravity 1 Y2 commercial carrier rocket with four solid-rocket boosters (SRBs) on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, at 10:20 a.m. Beijing Time (BJT) from its launch ship off the coast of Haiyang in east China's Shandong Province. This marked the second flight of the world's largest and most powerful commercial solid-propellant rocket that produces 600 tonnes of thrust at liftoff. The Gravity 1 Y2 rocket delivered three satellites into their planned Earth orbits. The payloads were an optical remote-sensing satellite and two experimental satellites.

This was the 20th offshore launch at the Oriental Aerospace Port. Prior to this, Yantai had already hosted 19 offshore rocket launch missions, sending a total of 130 satellites into space.

This mission was the second flight of the Gravity 1 after its debut launch from the same site in January 2024.

Xu Guoguang, chief designer and project manager of Gravity 1, said the second flight aimed to further verify the rocket's reliability and capability, its pre-launch preparations and the launch sequence, as well as to demonstrate its ability to handle multiple flight trajectories. The Gravity 1 rocket model features three core stages and four boosters, all powered by solid-propellant engine and equipped with flexible swinging nozzles.

With a liftoff weight of 405 metric tons and a thrust of 600 tons, the rocket can carry a spacecraft weighing up to 6.5 tons to a low-Earth orbit, or 4.2 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers, according to Orienspace—founded in 2020 by a group of veteran researchers from State-owned space enterprises.

Gravity 1 is the most powerful commercial rocket currently in China.

Its liftoff weight and thrust surpass those of the European Space Agency's Vega-C, previously the world's most powerful solid-propellant rocket.

In addition, Gravity 1 is the first and currently the only private rocket in China that has side boosters and the largest fairing, or nose cone—the top structure on a rocket that contains satellites or other payloads.

The use of solid fuel is "convenient and safe." It allows for the process of rocket assembly, testing and launch to be completed within a 5 kilometer radius, significantly reducing production time and cost.

Offshore launches offer additional advantages in terms of safety and frequency with potential for weekly launch missions using a single vessel, according to OrienSpace.

The Gravity-1 rocket structure is designed for rapid mass production. Its core and boosters have the same diameter, simplifying the manufacturing process and significantly improving manufacturing efficiency, while cutting production costs.

OrienSpace said it aimed to achieve liquid rocket recyclability and reusability within 1-2 years, increasing its carrying capacity to 15-20 tonnes and further driving down costs.

Credit: Orienspace

Duration: 2 minutes, 37 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 15, 2025

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