Science
The new space race: how China plans to break SpaceX’s launch monopoly with IPO push
Key Points
The new space race: how China plans to break SpaceX’s launch monopoly with IPO push As Beijing makes history by capturing the Long March-10B booster at sea, at least 15 aerospace firms are racing to go public on Shanghai’s Star Market or in Hong Kong Meanwhile, LandSpace Technology – widely regarded as a challenger to SpaceX – had its initial public offering review status restored to “Inquired” in late June after submitting updated financial materials. It was suspended in late March because...
The new space race: how China plans to break SpaceX’s launch monopoly with IPO push
As Beijing makes history by capturing the Long March-10B booster at sea, at least 15 aerospace firms are racing to go public on Shanghai’s Star Market or in Hong Kong
Meanwhile, LandSpace Technology – widely regarded as a challenger to SpaceX – had its initial public offering review status restored to “Inquired” in late June after submitting updated financial materials. It was suspended in late March because of expired financial data, while the company now seeks to raise 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion)
At the end of June, LandSpace officially announced that its Zhuque-3 reusable test rocket had completed a static fire test, where the engine’s performance is tested at full power without launching. Both LandSpace and CAS Space plan to channel their IPO proceeds directly into reusable rocket projects.
These developments come amid a major technical breakthrough in the domestic sector. On July 10, China successfully recovered the Long March-10B carrier rocket – developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) – at sea via a recovery platform.