The first flight rocket has completed the delivery and final assembly of the common bulkhead propellant tank of the second stage. "Yushi Space" has completed an Angel + round of financing, with a cumulative financing exceeding 100 million yuan | Exclusive from 36Kr.
Text | Liu Jingqiong
Editor | A Zhi
Cover Source | Provided by the enterprise
36Kr learned that Beijing Yushi Space Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yushi Space"), a rocket R & D and manufacturing company, recently announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in Series Angel + financing. This round of financing was led by Qiancheng Capital, followed by institutions such as Huacang Capital. The old shareholder, Linguo Venture Capital, continued to increase its investment. The funds raised will be used for the company's rocket product R & D, the continuous construction of the production and test base, and the expansion of the team.
Yushi Space is a new - generation rocket R & D and manufacturing company that 36Kr has been continuously following. At the beginning of March this year, 36Kr reported that Yushi Space completed tens of millions of yuan in Series Angel financing, led by Linguo Venture Capital, followed by Yingtan Aerospace and the Tsinghua Alumni Seed Fund.
Yushi Space's stainless - steel common - bottom propellant tank
Founded in 2024, Yushi Space currently focuses on the R & D and manufacturing of high - thrust, low - cost, and rapidly reusable liquid rockets. It is currently "the only domestic team using the stainless - steel rocket + 'chopsticks' capture arm recovery solution". It is reported that the AS - 1 rocket has a diameter of 4.2 meters, with a one - time payload capacity of over 15 tons and a recoverable payload capacity of over 10 tons. The one - time launch cost can be as low as 20,000 yuan per kilogram, and the recoverable launch unit price is 10,000 yuan per kilogram, lower than the market average. The company is committed to breaking the current development dilemma of high prices and low production capacity of commercial rockets, providing customers with cost - effective liquid rockets, serving the needs of massive satellite networking, and promoting the equalization of space transportation capabilities.
The founding team of Yushi Space has profound industry experience in rocket overall design, power systems, structures, and recovery fields. Dr. Tang Wen, the founder and CEO, graduated from the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua University. He has 14 years of work experience in liquid rocket power and structures and has achieved the first domestic stainless - steel liquid oxygen methane rocket prototype and static ignition. Even earlier, Dr. Tang Wen fully participated in the development of China's largest and most powerful liquid rocket, CZ - 5, and China's space station cargo liquid rocket, CZ - 7, within the First Academy of Aerospace. Dr. Tian Jichao, the co - founder and CTO, graduated from the School of Aerospace at Harbin Institute of Technology and has 15 years of work experience in liquid rocket overall design. Dr. Zhu Xinwen, the co - founder and CSO, obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in the United States. After returning to China, he directly joined the commercial rocket industry. He has aerospace work experience in both China and the United States and is proficient in the "chopsticks" capture arm structure and identification and capture technology.
Different from some commercial aerospace companies that only recruit academic talents, Yushi Space has attracted a group of top cross - border talents. Dr. Tang Wen firmly believes that "the future of commercial aerospace will surely be all - inclusive, attracting a large number of top talents in physics, mechanics, materials science, and robotics to cross - integrate. The co - founder team of our company, with me as the core, will adopt an open attitude to attract talents from China's advantageous high - end manufacturing industries and guide the transformation to commercial aerospace through talent echelon training."
It is reported that in the more than two months since the completion of the previous round of financing, the team size of Yushi Space has tripled. Yushi Space is in a period of rapid expansion, and the founding team is still actively promoting the recruitment of various talents and team integration.
It is reported that Yushi Space's production and test center has been completed and fully put into use. The center has the full - process R & D capabilities for the second - stage products of launch vehicles, covering structural manufacturing, power system integration, final assembly and testing, and ground joint tests. In the structural manufacturing process, the production and test center is equipped with horizontal welding assembly stations, vertical welding assembly stations, etc. A single workshop can meet the production and manufacturing of rockets from parts to components, components to sections, and finally the whole rocket. Currently, it can achieve the precision forming of the thin - wall structure of the 4.2 - meter - diameter rocket body, with a one - time qualification rate of 99% for the welding of cryogenic propellant tanks. Next, the team will rapidly promote the construction of the production and test base for the first - flight rocket.
As one of Yushi Space's core products, the second - stage common - bottom propellant tank of the AS - 1 rocket has been delivered and assembled as planned. In the next few months, the Yushi Space team will focus on three core tasks: the final assembly and testing of the second - stage rocket, the static ignition test, and the ground test of the full - scale capture arm prototype to promote technology verification and product iteration.
As the rocket engine supplier of Yushi Space, the person in charge of Jiuzhou Yunjian said: "We have cooperated with the Yushi Space team for many years and have developed and delivered a customized 80 - ton - class Longyun engine. Yushi Space has top - level domestic power system and structural design capabilities, can fully tap the potential of liquid oxygen methane in reusable rockets, and is expected to achieve multiple major breakthroughs in the first flight of the four - meter - class stainless - steel rocket."
Since March, Yushi Space has completed two rounds of financing in a row, with a cumulative amount of over 100 million yuan. Dr. Tang Wen told 36Kr that Yushi Space's third - round financing is currently in progress.
Views of the Investors
The investment team of Qiancheng Capital said: We firmly believe in the technical potential of the stainless - steel structure, liquid oxygen methane power, and "chopsticks" capture and recovery method. This is also the optimal solution to achieve extremely low costs. At the same time, the 4 - meter - class liquid rocket has a series of technical difficulties compared with the traditional 3.35 - meter one - time rocket, such as the force - transmission mechanism of the nine - engine parallel connection, the trajectory and landing point control in rocket overall design, and the structure of the common - bottom propellant tank. The realization of these technical difficulties requires the company's leader to have strong strategic decision - making ability, especially a strong understanding of rocket overall design and power systems. Dr. Tang Wen has experienced the development of CZ - 5 and CZ - 7 within the aerospace system. He is one of the few dual - expert in liquid oxygen methane power and stainless - steel structures and is expected to achieve the zero - to - one breakthrough in the first flight of the domestic stainless - steel rocket.
The investment team of Huacang Capital said: We have been deeply involved in the commercial aerospace industry for many years and have made layouts from the upstream rocket structure supply chain to the whole satellite. The biggest pain point in China's current commercial aerospace industry is the insufficient supply at the rocket launch end. Further investigation reveals that the traditional aluminum alloy propellant tanks have disadvantages in production capacity and cost. Yushi Space focuses on the development of stainless - steel liquid rockets and has a mature 30X material system. It uses a more efficient skin - stringer + argon arc welding process to replace the traditional friction stir welding process of aluminum alloy rockets, reducing the cost by 10 times. At the same time, it is actively promoting the R & D and application layout of the "chopsticks recovery" technology in the field of reusable rockets. Yushi Space has a complete stainless - steel liquid rocket R & D team and has achieved multiple zero - to - one breakthroughs in stainless - steel structures in the industry. We look forward to the early first flight of Yushi's rocket.
The investment team of Linguo Venture Capital said: The Yushi Space team completed the offline production of the second - stage propellant tank and the Series Angel + financing in a very short time after the first - round financing, fully demonstrating the team's extraordinary technical and engineering capabilities and execution. We are extremely looking forward to and firmly believe that the team will burst out more powerful energy and shine more brightly in future work and grow into a backbone force in China's commercial aerospace field. Linguo Venture Capital will also continue to support the company's development, be a co - entrepreneur with scientists, and a long - term companion for entrepreneurs!
