Blue Arrow Aerospace has become China's most technologically advanced private rocket company and the company closest to Elon Musk's SpaceX in the country. Like its U.S. rivals, Blue Arrow Aerospace is betting its future on reusable rockets.
What kind of company is Blue Arrow Aerospace?
Blue Arrow Aerospace was established in 2015 and is headquartered in Beijing. The company was one of the first startups to enter the industry after China opened up parts of its aerospace sector to private capital in 2014.
Blue Arrow Aerospace has raised billions of yuan from multiple investors, including venture capital firm Sequoia Capital (then known as Sequoia Capital China Fund), the investment arm of real estate developer Country Garden, and the state-backed China Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.
Chinese company registration information shows that Blue Arrow Aerospace completed 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$170 million) in financing in 2020; in December last year, it received another 900 million yuan investment from a state-owned fund that supports advanced manufacturing. In addition, the governments of Huzhou and Jiaxing also provided support to the company.
In July 2023, Blue Arrow Aerospace successfully launched the "Suzaku-2" rocket. This is the world's first rocket to use methane liquid oxygen propellant, and its launch time precedes American competitors such as SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
Currently, Blue Arrow Aerospace is focusing on the development of the larger "Suzaku-3" rocket. The rocket is made of stainless steel and has a designed low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of about 20 to 25 tons, which is several times that of the "Suzaku 2".
If the "Suzaku 3" can achieve complete launch, return and landing, Blue Arrow Aerospace will become the first company in China and the third company in the world after SpaceX and Blue Origin to achieve the goal of recovering and reusing large boosters after space flight.
This goal puts Blue Arrow Aerospace at the forefront of China’s private sector in developing “low-cost reusable rockets.” In contrast, large state-owned aerospace companies are advancing more slowly in this direction.
"Zhuque-3" is China's first systematic attempt at a large reusable rocket. Currently, the Chinese government hopes that private companies will win more global launch orders and help build the country's large-scale communication satellites and earth observation satellite constellations.
How does Elon Musk evaluate Blue Arrow Aerospace’s “Suzaku 3”?
Globally, rockets that can be "landed and reused after launch" have attracted widespread attention and investment. This type of rocket can significantly reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit, but the engineering technology is extremely difficult - currently only SpaceX can achieve regular reuse through the "Falcon 9".
With the development and first flight of "Suzaku 3", Blue Arrow Aerospace is closer to this goal than other non-U.S. competitors.
Musk has taken note of the progress of Blue Arrow Aerospace. In October this year, when he responded to a post about the design of the "Suzaku 3" on the social platform Currently, SpaceX mainly relies on "Falcon 9" to promote the construction of the Starlink Internet constellation. The number of satellites in this constellation far exceeds all competitors in the United States and China.
Why are reusable rockets vital to China’s space strategy?
For the Chinese government, if it wants to build its own version of the "Starlink" constellation in the next few years, companies like Blue Arrow Aerospace are a key link - they can not only integrate the technical experience of long-standing state-owned aerospace companies, but also have the agility and risk-taking capabilities of startups.
Blue Arrow Aerospace issued a statement after the first flight of "Zhuque-3" saying: "With the acceleration of the deployment of low-orbit constellations, 'Zhuque-3' will gradually move from recovery and verification to normalized reuse, and ultimately achieve an 'aviation-grade' operating rhythm, helping to build China's aerospace power and improve its advanced industrial capabilities."
If the "Suzaku 3" project is successful and Blue Arrow Aerospace achieves the goal of "second only to SpaceX in the field of reusable rockets", it is expected to provide support for its financing - including the plan to be listed on the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board (a securities market focusing on technology companies) disclosed in July this year.