Orienspace东方空间

Orienspace flies the most powerful solid-fuel rocket ever built, from ships. Gravity-1 packs three solid stages inside four solid boosters, 405 tonnes at liftoff, and launches from a barge at sea, which sidesteps crowded inland ranges and drops spent stages over water. Three flights since January 2024 have all succeeded, delivering fifteen satellites and twice setting Chinese commercial payload records.

The company started in Yantai in 2020, and the plan is a familiar two-step: solid rockets earn revenue now and fund Gravity-2, a 70 metre kerolox vehicle in the Falcon 9 class whose first stage is meant to come back, initially flying on state-supplied engines while Orienspace's own matures.

Cadence is the honest weakness. Twenty-one months passed between the first and second flights, against promises of eight to ten a year, and Gravity-2 has slipped at least twice, now aiming for late 2026. There was also a governance episode in December 2024, when Chinese business press reported co-founder Yao Song forced out and the CTO installed as chairman, which the company disputed. Who runs Orienspace has never been publicly settled since.