Hyperbola-1

The Hyperbola-1 (aka Shuang Quxian-1, SQX-1) (Chinese: 双曲线一号) rocket is 20.8 m (68 ft) tall, 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) in diameter and weighs 31 t (34 tons). It consists of four all solid fuel stages, guided by liquid fuel attitude control engines.^[1] It can launch 300 kg (660 lb) into low Earth orbit (LEO).^[2] The rocket might be based on Chinese military missiles (perhaps DF-11 or DF-15). The first stage of the rocket is equipped with four grid fins.^[1] The launch price is reported around US$5 million.^[3]

The successful maiden flight was on 25 July 2019, at 05:00 UTC from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.^[4] It launched from a movable supporting platform.^[3] It placed numerous payloads,^[5] among them the CAS-7B amateur radio satellite, into orbit 300 km (190 mi) above Earth. CAS-7B decayed from orbit 6 August 2019.^[6] It was the first Chinese private company to achieve orbit (orbital launches of other private companies before had failed).^[7]

A second launch occurred on 1 February 2021, at 08:15 UTC (16:15 Beijing Time) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center with 6 unidentified satellites but failed to reach orbit.^[8] A subsequent investigation revealed that a piece of insulation had broken off and got stuck in the turning mechanism of grid fin Number IV. When the piece was blown away, the control system then suddenly overcompensated, resulting in the rocket being ripped apart by excessive aerodynamic forces.^[9] The rocket was named "Tianshu" because its outer fuselage was covered with the artistic creations (images of compound made-up Chinese characters) of the contemporary artist Xu Bing.^[8]

iSpace launched a third Hyperbola-1 solid-rocket vehicle on 3 August 2021.^[10] SpaceNews was reporting the same day that the outcome of the launch was unknown, but that amateur video of the launch had been posted, but then deleted from Chinese social media.^[10] After most of the day had passed, the Chinese official media Xinhua reported that the launch was unsuccessful due to off-nominal performance of the rocket which resulted in a failure to achieve orbit.^[11] An official statement released by the company itself the following day clarified that the failure was caused by a malfunctioning in the fairing separation process, that precluded the payload from reaching the target orbit. A fourth launch attempt on May 13, 2022, was unsuccessful as well.^[9]

In April 2023, i-Space performed a fifth launch of the Hyperbola-1 which successfully reached orbit without a payload ,^[12] and then followed with another launch on 17 December 2023 that placed the DEAR-1 satellite from Chinese company Azspace into a 500 kilometre SSO orbit.^[13]

The following table indicates the launches to date:^[14][15][16]