At 15:00 on December 17, 2023, Beijing time, the hyperbolic No. 1 commercial launch vehicle was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, and the DEMOCRAT No. 1 satellite on board was smoothly sent into the scheduled orbit, and the launch mission was a complete success.
It is reported that “Double Curve No. 1” is the first private commercial launch vehicle in China to successfully enter orbit, and it has unfortunately experienced three consecutive failures after its successful maiden flight, and finally regained its success in the launch of the Remote Six rocket in the first half of this year.
“Double Curve One” is a small four-stage solid launch vehicle developed by Star Glory, 24 meters long, one to four stages, fairing diameter are 1.4 meters, takeoff mass of about 42 tons, takeoff thrust of about 79 tons, its near-Earth orbit (LEO) capacity of 0.38 tons, 500 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) capacity greater than 0.3 tons, 700 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) capacity greater than 0.3 tons, 700 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) capacity greater than 0.3 tons. Its LEO capacity is 0.38 tons, 500 km SSO capacity is more than 0.3 tons, and 700 km SSO capacity is 0.225 tons.
Previously, the “hyperbola one” launch offer of 5 million U.S. dollars (the current exchange rate of nearly 36 million yuan), based on the arrow near-Earth orbit capacity calculation, the unit launch offer of about 13,000 U.S. dollars. However, with the delivery of the rocket batch production, the launch offer there is a large space for decline.
At present, Star Glory’s “Hyperbola II” rocket has completed two vertical take-off and landing missions, realizing China’s first reusable technology validation rocket reuse flights, and providing a good opportunity for the company’s ongoing development of the medium-to-large-sized reusable launch vehicle “Hyperbola III” to provide a good opportunity for the development of “Hyperbola III”. It has provided key technology verification for the company’s ongoing development of the medium- to large-sized reusable launch vehicle “Double Curve III”.
It is expected that in 2025, the “Hyperbola III” rocket will achieve its first flight, with a take-off mass of 490 tons and a near-Earth orbit capacity of 13.7 tons, which will provide powerful capacity support for China’s constellation network launches.