A new $172 million Series B round was raised by Chinese commercial launch startup iSpace. The new funding was led by Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center, CICC Alpha and Taizhonghe Capital, and is also inclusive of participation from existing shareholders.
As sourced from TechCrunch, the funding will primarily assist in development of iSpace’s planned “Hyperbola” space launch vehicle. Hyperbola-2 is a larger rocket in development, and iSpace intends for the first-stage booster of that vehicle to be fully reusable, with vertical landing capabilities almost like those of SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
iSpace is developing reusable rocket technology to match, which is another use of the new injection of funding — also as technical talent hiring to support all of the above. The goal is to perform a primary test flight just to the Kalman line that defines the sting of space sometime early next year, using the first-stage booster of the Hyperbola-2 and including a powered landing. After that, it hopes to fly its first fully orbital mission before the top of next year.
Founded in 2016, iSpace previously raised $104.5 million, bringing its total funding to date to $276.5 million.
