China's so-called 'SpaceX' unable to deliver to country's launch demands: Reports

The Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd. which was being endorsed by China as its own 'SpaceX' is reportedly facing a hard time keeping up with its country's demands. A report by news agency ANI revealed that the company, which is also called iSpace is unable to deliver to the demands of China's commercial launch requirements owing to its recent failures. Founded in 2018, the company is backed by China's tech giant Baidu along with Beijing-based venture capital firms.

iSpace is remembered as the first privately managed Chinese firm which was able to deliver a satellite into orbit. The company had achieved this feat in July 2019, when it successfully launched four payloads in the low-Earth orbit (LEO) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using the Hyperbola-1 (Y1) rocket. This had made many entities put their faith in the company, owing to which iSpace had thanked China's Space Administration of Science Technology and other institutions for their assistance. 

However, the second satellite launch of the company resulted in failure which has eventually cast doubts over its reliability. According to ANI, the Hyperbola-1 satellite carrying the Fangzhou-2 (Ark-2) satellite lifted off on February 1, 2021, but was largely off the mark. Multiple media reports suggest that the launch failure resulted from an issue in the rocket while some attributed the failure to complications regarding the foam insulations that are designed to be ejected from the rocket during liftoff.  iSpace's second and major failure came on August 3 this year when it witnessed another failure of the Hyperbola-1 at the Jiuquan base. While the second launch failed due to multiple reasons, this debacle was caused due to the silicon rubber of the faring getting stuck with the windshield which did not allow the payload to separate. 

China's feud with SpaceX

China on Monday said that its space station was forced to take evasive action in a bid to avoid collision with American billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites. In the document submitted by China to the UN’s space agency, Beijing said that the satellites from Starlink Internet Services had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station on July 1 and October 21. Tap here to read more. 

Image: ANI