On 17th May 2018, China made history by launching its first ever private rocket from an undisclosed launchpad in North-western China as part of its space exploration program. The Chongqing Liangjiang Star is a suborbital rocket developed by Beijing-based private company OneSpace Technology and was launched into space at 7:33 am on Thursday morning. This Chongqing Liangjiang Star has now successfully become the first non-state Chinese rocket to enter its orbit in space.
The Chongqing Liangjiang Star was confirmed to reach an altitude of 273 kilometers before it reverted back to Earth. The rocket was powered by a fuel engine developed by OneSpace, and Ma Chao, the chairman of the company holds its control systems customizable. The Chongqing Liangjiang Star is nine meters long, weighs 7,200 kg and can acquire a maximum speed of more than 5.7 times that of sound. The rocket was also made with wireless communication devices which reduced the overall fuel costs of the Chongqing Lianjiang Star by about 30 percent.
Under President Xi Jinping, the main priority of China is to establish a permanently manned space station in orbit within 2022. Hence, after this successful launch of the suborbital rocket, OneSpace has confirmed that they will build at least 20 of these OS-X type rockets before the end of 2022. One entire legion will then be capable of placing 100-kilogram payloads into orbits as far as 800 km from the Earth. OneSpace has also disclosed the planned project of creating another M type rocket which would boost the Chinese microsatellite sector immensely.