Yunqi Portfolio | Early-Stage Project "Space Epoch" Raises 1 Billion RMB in Total Funding, Racing Toward Maiden Flight of Reusable Medium-Large Launch Vehicle

Recently, Space Epoch, an early Yunqi Capital portfolio company, completed a RMB 500 million Series A round, bringing total funding to RMB 1 billion. The proceeds will primarily go toward rocket assembly and testing, chopstick recovery technology validation, production capacity expansion, and team building — all to support the maiden flight of its AS-1 rocket and subsequent scaled operations.

As the foundational core of the commercial space industry chain, launch vehicles are transitioning from R&D validation to a new phase of scale, low cost, and reusability. Yunqi Capital, which invested in Space Epoch's angel+ round, has backed the company since its earliest days and continued to invest in subsequent rounds. We remain bullish on the long-term value of China's commercial space infrastructure and look forward to Space Epoch's continued progress in engineering and deploying medium-to-large reusable liquid-fuel rockets.

In this edition of "Yunqi Partners," we bring you the latest on Space Epoch.

The following is excerpted from "Space Epoch"

The company plans to produce three rockets in 2026 to ensure its maiden flight mission in the first half of 2027, with commercialization targeted for the second half.

Looking back at 2025 and 2026, Space Epoch has continued to earn capital market recognition for its technical approach and commercial prospects, completing five funding rounds over the past 15 months, attracting multiple top-tier financial institutions and strategic investors. Competition in commercial space has intensified and consolidated in 2026. The STAR Market now explicitly requires commercial rocket companies to achieve a successful first orbital payload delivery using a reusable medium-to-large launch vehicle — a regulatory endorsement that validates Space Epoch's 4-meter-diameter liquid oxygen/methane reusable rocket path. This requirement also aligns closely with the demand for high capacity and low cost from low-orbit internet constellations, confirming the company's strategic conviction and product positioning.

On production capacity, Space Epoch has continued expanding on its "one center, two bases" strategic layout. Its northern R&D center has grown to over 4,000 square meters, with a newly operational electrical systems integration test center providing critical support for avionics validation. Its Hunan rocket assembly and manufacturing base has partially come online and is expected to be fully delivered in Q3 2026, with an annual production capacity of eight rockets at full operation. Construction of its avionics center and chopstick-capture arm ground joint test facility has also commenced in parallel, further completing its full-chain layout from design, manufacturing, and test validation to orbital delivery, recovery, and reuse.

With new facilities and test centers coming fully online, Space Epoch's demand for talent has grown further. As of May 2026, the team has **exceeded 200 people, with R&D staff accounting for over 70%. By year-end 2026, headcount is expected to expand to 350–400, building core strength for the maiden flight and subsequent scaled operations.

As the only domestic commercial rocket company pursuing a "stainless steel body + liquid oxygen/methane propulsion + chopstick-capture arm recovery" technical approach, Space Epoch has pioneered a closed-loop stainless steel design capability from materials and components to full vehicles, achieving breakthroughs across the entire industrial chain from design to process, production, and testing. It has become the frontrunner in engineering applications for stainless steel rockets, ensuring it will be the second company in the nation to achieve successful orbital insertion with a rocket exceeding 4.2 meters in diameter.

In 2026, the Space Epoch team will focus on four core missions to sprint toward its maiden flight goal: full-scale capture arm prototype ground joint testing; first-flight rocket first-stage assembly and testing; first-flight rocket first-stage static fire testing; and full-vehicle assembly and testing for the maiden flight.

Exploring the vast cosmos and building China into a space power is the mission entrusted to China's space industry by the era, and the original aspiration that drives Space Epoch's participation. As global competition for space resources intensifies, low-cost launch and reusable technology are reshaping the space industry landscape. Space Epoch, with "Space Android"** as its strategic positioning, aims to establish an open, compatible space infrastructure ecosystem, substantively lowering the barrier to space access, enabling space infrastructure to truly empower industries across the board, and injecting powerful momentum from the space consumption era into China's space power ambitions!**