The second-stage rocket has completed final assembly and testing. "Yushi Space" has completed a Pre-A round of financing exceeding 100 million yuan, with a cumulative financing of nearly 300 million yuan this year | Exclusive from 36Kr

Text | Liu Jingqiong

Editor | Azhi

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, announced the completion of a Pre - A round of financing exceeding 100 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Cornerstone Capital, followed by Xingxiang Capital and Tuofeng Venture Capital. Old shareholders such as Yinying Capital continued to increase their investment. The funds raised will be used for the R & D of the maiden - flight rocket and the construction of the production base in Zhuzhou.

This year, in March and May, 36Kr continuously reported that Yushi Space completed its angel round and angel + round of financing. Including this round, Yushi Space has raised nearly 300 million yuan in one year. Historical investors also include LinGe Venture Capital, Yingtan Aerospace, Tsinghua Alumni Seed Fund, Qiancheng Capital, Huacang Capital, etc.

Founded in 2024, Yushi Space focuses on the R & D and manufacturing of high - thrust, low - cost, and rapidly reusable liquid rockets. It is currently the only domestic team that uses the stainless - steel rocket + "chopstick" capture arm recovery solution.

The main product of Yushi Space is the AS - 1 rocket. It is reported that the AS - 1 launch vehicle is a low - cost two - stage medium - sized liquid rocket. It uses a stainless - steel structure + liquid oxygen methane power, and adopts the capture arm recovery and reuse method, mainly targeting the launch market for low - and medium - orbit payloads.

The total length of the AS - 1 launch vehicle is about 70 meters, with a take - off weight of about 570 tons, a rocket body diameter of 4.2 meters, a one - time carrying capacity of over 15 tons, and a recovery carrying capacity of over 10 tons. The one - time launch cost can be as low as 20,000 yuan per kilogram, and the recovery launch unit price is 10,000 yuan per kilogram, which is lower than the market average. According to Dr. Tang Wen, the founder and CEO of Yushi Space, currently, the second - stage rocket of the AS - 1 of Yushi Space has successfully completed the final assembly and testing work. The second - stage rocket for the maiden flight has now been transported to the test base and has officially entered the power system test phase.

In the past six months, the team size of Yushi Space has expanded to over 120 people. Currently, the company has completed the construction of "one center and two bases" and put them into use. "One center" is centered around the R & D team in Beijing, carrying out rocket R & D and rocket capture and recovery technology research; "Two bases" are the production and test base in Hebei and the production, R & D, final assembly and testing base in Hunan. The two bases will undertake the production, final assembly, and testing of the maiden - flight rocket and the R & D and testing tasks of the new - generation stainless - steel rocket.

Rendering of Yushi Space's Zhuzhou Rocket R & D Base

Among them, the R & D base for reusable stainless - steel liquid launch vehicles of Yushi Space has been settled in Zhuzhou, Hunan and construction has begun . It is reported that the base is divided into two phases, with a total floor area of about 54,000 square meters and a total investment of about 1.5 billion yuan. After reaching full production, it will have the production capacity of 8 rockets per year, with an expected annual output value of 2 billion yuan, fully covering the production and final assembly of the AS - 1 rocket. According to the plan, Phase I of the Zhuzhou Rocket R & D Base will be delivered and put into use in Q2 next year.

As one of the earliest domestic teams to use stainless - steel rocket bodies, Yushi Space has independently cultivated the supply chain system for stainless - steel rocket bodies from scratch and currently masters the entire process of stainless - steel raw material production, process tooling, etc. Compared with traditional aluminum - alloy rocket bodies, stainless - steel rocket bodies have obvious advantages in both cost and production efficiency. According to Zhu Xinwen, the co - founder, currently, the cost of the self - developed stainless - steel rocket body of Yushi Space is only one - tenth of that of the aluminum - alloy rocket body, and at the same time, the production efficiency has been increased several times. The fastest delivery time is only one month. In the plan of the founding team, with an open mindset, in addition to meeting its own needs, Yushi Space will also open up the production capacity of stainless - steel rocket bodies in the future.

Since this year, Yushi Space has successively completed the delivery and final assembly of the common - bottom tank of the second stage and the final assembly and testing of the second - stage rocket. Next, it will focus on two core tasks: the static ignition test of the second - stage rocket of the maiden - flight rocket and the ground test of the full - scale capture arm prototype. Tang Wen revealed that "next year, Yushi Space plans to complete the final assembly and testing of the first stage of the maiden - flight rocket and the power system test of the first - stage rocket, and strive to build three rockets by the end of 2026 to complete the verification of the maiden - flight state."

Tang Wen told 36Kr that "the continuous iteration of SpaceX's Starship and the successful maiden flight of LandSpace's Zhuque - 3 have confirmed the advantages of stainless - steel rockets over traditional aluminum - alloy rockets in terms of production efficiency and design flexibility. Relying on the excellent mechanical properties of stainless steel and the low - cost advantage of China's industrial manufacturing, commercial rocket companies are breaking through the production capacity bottleneck. In the future, commercial rocket companies that choose the'stainless steel + liquid oxygen methane solution' will have an annual launch capacity of more than 30 rockets, effectively alleviating the launch constraints of the satellite Internet industry chain."

Currently, Yushi Space's fourth - round financing is accelerating.

Investors' Comments

The investment team of Cornerstone Capital said: The maturity of reusable rocket technology is the core prerequisite for the commercial feasibility of the commercial space industry. Stainless steel + liquid oxygen methane is the end - game route benchmarking against SpaceX. Currently, this field is in a critical breakthrough period from 0 to 1, and a mature and stable commercial application paradigm has not yet been formed, leaving a scarce opportunity window for start - up companies. Although start - up companies have relatively limited resources, the lack of historical baggage of path dependence allows them to move forward lightly and quickly test and correct mistakes. And the breakthrough of this new technology precisely requires breakthrough thinking, the courage to move forward without fear of failure, and a flexible and efficient product iteration mechanism - these are the valuable qualities I see in the Yushi Space team.

Xue Zhen, the chief investment officer of Xingxiang Capital, said: As a "game - changer" in China's commercial space industry, Yushi Space has reduced the launch cost to 20,000 yuan per kilogram by using the only "stainless - steel rocket body + chopstick mechanical arm recovery" technology in China. With the manufacturing strength of Hunan, it enables Chinese commercial rockets to compete with the world's top - level ones. Its rocket final assembly base in Zhuzhou and the tower - based recovery center in Changsha have started construction, which will create a closed - loop ecosystem of "Hunan satellites, Hunan rockets, and Hunan launches", leading to industrial agglomeration in the Changsha - Zhuzhou - Xiangtan area. Relying on the triple advantages of Hunan, it is recommended to build a spatio - temporal information industry community. It is hoped that under the leadership of Dr. Tang Wen, Yushi Space will play the role of a chain - leading enterprise with the Huxiang spirit, deeply integrate into the local industrial ecosystem, and contribute to the high - quality development of Hunan's commercial space industry.