GRAVITY 1: ORIENSPACE's first (and new) ROCKET

Video from the channel link4universe about Gravity-1, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 29:54. Language: Italian. Video type: Documentary.

An explainer piece in Italian that reviews the origin of the Gravity-1, the first launcher from the Chinese company Orienspace, and its maiden flight from a sea-based platform. The author goes through the renders, mock-ups and tests that became known during development, shows real footage of the liftoff from several angles, and closes with the company's plans for larger rockets.

Orienspace was founded in 2020 and is part of the second wave of Chinese private space companies, driven by the government in response to the push from American private companies such as SpaceX. According to the video, the company chose to start with a classic technology, solid propulsion, building on engines developed in China for other programmes and improving them, in order to enter the market quickly and fund more ambitious developments. A contract with the Chinese government to launch weather satellites provided funds to speed up testing. Between 2022 and 2023, pressure and vibration tests on structures, fairing-opening tests and a strap-on-booster separation test were seen; the initial team had fewer than 30 people. The rocket was transported by ship and lifted off on the open sea, with extensive live coverage.

The video describes a three-stage rocket with solid-propellant boosters, about 29 m tall and around 400 tonnes, capable of placing 6.5 t into low Earth orbit and about 4.2 t at 500 km. It presents it as the largest solid-propellant rocket in the world and compares it with Europe's Vega. The last stage can reignite in orbit to position the satellites precisely, and the strap-on boosters are not recovered. As next steps, Orienspace is working on the Gravity-2, with a reusable first stage and versions with and without boosters, planned for 2025, and on the Gravity-3, proposed as an equivalent to the Falcon Heavy; the family could reach a capacity of around 31 t.