i-Space (other forms of writing the name are also wide spread in the media; Chinese: 星际荣耀; pinyin; xīngjì róngyào; literally: "Interstellar Glory", also known as Space Honor, Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd.,, Interstellar Glory or StarCraft Glory is a Chineseprivate space launch company based in Beijing and founded in October 2016. As of July 2019, i-Space has successfully launched the Hyperbola-1S and Hyberbola-1Z rockets into space on a suborbital flight and reached low Earth orbit with Hyperbola-1. The company develops solid fuel small satellite orbital launchers. The main components of the company's rockets, e.g. solid propellant engines, are outsourced and produced by the CASC.
Rockets
Suborbital rockets: Hyperbola-1S and Hyberbola-1Z
The Hyperbola-1S, and the Hyperbola-1Z, are single stage, solid-fueled suborbital test rockets. The Hyperbola-1S rocket is long, with a diameter of and weighs. The Hyperbola-1Z rocket has a diameter of 4.6 feet, maximum design speed of 3,580 mph and can reach altitude of 109 miles. The first sub-orbitaltest flight of Hyperbola-1S took place from Hainan island in 5 April 2018 to an altitude of 108 kilometers. The second flight of i-Space was a commercial sub-orbital flight launched on 5 September 2018 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, using the Hyperbola-1Z rocket. The sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of and a peak velocity of over. It carried payloads from private Chinese satellite companies ZeroG Labs and ADA-space. The rocket delivered three CubeSat satellites one of which subsequently parachuted back to Earth.
Hyperbola-1
The Hyperbola-1 rocket is 20.8 meters tall, 1.4 meters in diameter and weighs 31 metric tons. It consists of four all solid fuel stages, guided by liquid attitude control engines. It can launch 300 kg into low-Earth orbit. The rocket might be based on Chinese military missiles. The launch price is reported around $5 million. Its successful maiden flight was on July 25, 2019 05:00 UTC from Jiuquan. It launched from a movable supporting platform. It placed numerous payloads, among them the CAS-7B amateur radio satellite, into orbit 300 km above Earth. CAS-7B decayed from orbit 6 August. It was the first Chinese private company to achieve orbit. The 1st stage is equipped with grid fins,
Hyperbola-2
The Hyperbola-2 rocket is a two-stage, liquid-fueled, reusable rocket to lift 1.9 tons into LEO. It uses liquid oxygen and methane as fuel. The first stage is expected to land propulsively in order to be reused. The JD-1 engine made its first hot fire test in May 2020.
Other developments
In May 2018, i-Space indicated they hoped to eventually develop a reusable sub-orbital spaceplane for space tourism.
