January 8, 2026 — Area Epoch, a Chinese language business area firm, has formally damaged floor on a medium-to-large liquid rocket meeting, testing, and reuse facility in Qiantang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, with the launch ceremony held on January 7.
The mission marks China’s first manufacturing base devoted to sea-recovered reusable rockets, and likewise represents the nation’s first stainless-steel rocket “tremendous manufacturing unit.”
Area Epoch is the primary Chinese language personal aerospace firm to undertake a “stainless-steel + liquid oxygen–methane” structure, combining industrialized manufacturing with revolutionary restoration applied sciences to allow absolutely reusable medium-to-large launch autos. Its flagship rocket, Yuanxingzhe-1, is designed for as much as 20 reuses per automobile.
In Might 2025, a validation model of the Yuanxingzhe-1 efficiently accomplished its first offshore flight and restoration take a look at, adopted in July by a mixed splashdown restoration, engine testing, and control-system hot-fire swing take a look at, reaching a closed-loop verification of the total launch-and-recovery course of.
The newly launched facility will embody a restoration and reuse middle, inspection and testing middle, and manufacturing middle. With a complete funding of roughly $745 million, Section I’ll cowl 108 mu (about 7.2 hectares). As soon as accomplished, the positioning will help annual manufacturing of as much as 25 Yuanxingzhe-1 rockets, enabling fast post-recovery inspection, refurbishment, and reuse.
The Yuanxingzhe-1 validation rocket is a full-scale, thin-walled stainless-steel launch automobile, measuring 4.2 meters in diameter and roughly 26.8 meters in peak, with a liftoff mass of round 57 metric tons. Throughout its take a look at flight, it flew for 125 seconds, reaching an altitude of roughly 2.5 kilometers.
Supply: IT Residence
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