China · 2020–
Orienspace
Private company based in Yantai that designs and operates the solid-fuel Gravity launcher series.
Orienspace in the news
August 6, 2026
HELSINKI — Commercial launch company Orienspace has kicked off preparations for an IPO coaching process while closing a funding round for accelerating its reusable Gravity-2 rocket. The…
July 22, 2026
Orienspace's Gravity-1, the world's most powerful solid rocket, aced its third-ever mission on Tuesday (July 21), launching nine satellites to orbit from a ship at sea.
HELSINKI — Commercial launch firm Orienspace launched its third Gravity-1 solid rocket late Tuesday, sending nine satellites into orbit from waters off Shanghai. The 30-meter-long Gravity-1 solid…
Catalog — Rockets
- 2024
Gravity-1
Gravity-1 (引力一号, Yinli-1) is a solid-propellant expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed, built and operated by the Chinese aerospace company Orienspace. It stands 29.4 metres tall with a core diameter of 2.65 metres, weighs 405 tonnes at lift-off and carries a fairing 4.2 metres across. It can place up to 6,500 kilograms into low Earth orbit or 4,200 kilograms into a 500-kilometre Sun-synchronous orbit, figures aimed squarely at deploying large-scale satellite constellations. Its distinguishing feature is its architecture: seven solid rocket motors in total, four of them side-mounted and ignited on the ground, while the remaining three form the core and are air-lit in sequence. That arrangement makes it the most powerful rocket built entirely from solid motors, and also explains the enormous plumes of smoke that accompany its launches. Gravity-1 is Orienspace's own vehicle, not a configuration derived from another launcher. It operates from a sea platform, a converted barge named Dong Fang Hang Tian Gang, and claims a response time of only five hours between the end of manufacturing and launch. Launch cost is around US$39 million, and Orienspace has signed contracts to launch more than one hundred satellites.