(Yicai) Sept. 17 -- Space Epoch, a private Chinese developer of reusable rockets, has completed a new financing round, bringing its total fundraising amount over the past six months to over CNY2.3 billion (USD342.8 million).

The Series B+ was jointly led by IDG Capital, Chaos Investment, Hangzhou Capital, and Songyuan Capital, the Beijing-based firm announced yesterday. Several other institutions and existing shareholders also participated.

The proceeds will mainly support the maiden flight mission of the company’s reusable liquid-propellant carrier rocket Yuanxingzhe-1, recovery and reuse demonstrations, and the building of commercial delivery capacity, said Yan Jia, Space Epoch’s vice president and board secretary. The firm will continue research and engineering verification of its ‘chopstick-style’ recovery technology, he added.

Yuanxingzhe-1 will be ready for its maiden flight by the end of this year, Yan predicted. Space Epoch will file for a launch permit and conduct its first orbital launch at an appropriate time, alongside recovery verification of the first-stage rocket body.

Yuanxingzhe-1’s maiden flight will adopt sea splashdown recovery to verify core capabilities of the first stage, including precision guidance, deceleration, and hovering, laying the technical groundwork for subsequent catch-recovery operations, Yan noted. “Sea recovery offers flexible selection of drop zones and cuts payload capacity losses.”

Space Epoch has spent the past four years focusing on manufacturing industrial rockets and developing reusable technologies, founder and Chairman Wei Yi said. Its next priority is to achieve rocket reuse and sustained commercial launch delivery, he noted, adding that competition in the sector hinges on the ability to deliver payloads to orbit consistently and at low cost.

A Yuanxingzhe-1 demonstrator rocket completed a successful suborbital sea flight and recovery test in May 2025, validating key technologies, including engine cut-off and re-ignition at high altitude and full-vehicle hovering above the sea surface.

Chinese rocket developers have pulled off two successful orbital launches and first-stage recovery of reusable rockets this year. On July 10, the reusable Long March 10B rocket, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, completed its maiden flight, the world’s first sea net-capture recovery. A month later, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket completed China’s first land vertical recovery using landing legs.

Plans to build satellite communication networks and space computing networks bring substantial business growth potential for launch services, attracting numerous private rocket startups to enter the competition.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione