The world's largest carrier rocket, China's private-sector rocket 'Zhuque-1,' successfully conducted its maiden sea launch.

On January 11, 2024, at 13:30, the "Yinli-1" carrier rocket, independently developed by Oriental Space Technology (Shandong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Oriental Space Company"), successfully lifted off in the sea near Haiyang, Shandong. The rocket delivered three satellites, Yunyao-1 18-20 series, into the designated orbit, marking the complete success of the launch mission.

It is reported that the "Yinli-1" has set several records, including being the world's largest solid carrier rocket, China's most powerful private-sector carrier rocket, and China's first bundled private-sector rocket. This achievement signifies significant progress in China's independent innovation in commercial carrier rockets, expanding the country's capabilities for diverse and large-scale launches of satellites into medium and low Earth orbits, further enriching China's spectrum of carrier rockets.

The "Yinli-1" is a medium-sized carrier rocket with an all-solid three-and-a-half-stage configuration. The rocket is 30 meters tall, with a core and booster diameter of 2.65 meters each. It has a liftoff weight of 405 tons, liftoff thrust of 600 tons, a near-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 6.5 tons, and a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity of 4.2 tons. It can meet the needs for batch networking launches of medium and low Earth orbit satellites and rapid response launches of medium to large-sized space payloads.

Bundling technology is one of the essential technologies for achieving the carrying capacity of medium to large-sized rockets and is also a sign of powerful overall design capability. As the first domestically developed bundled configuration for private-sector rockets, the "Yinli-1" uses the height of a small rocket to achieve the carrying capacity of a medium-sized rocket, while also meeting the requirements for sea launches.

Buxiangwei, Co-CEO of Oriental Space Company and Chief Designer and Commander of "Yinli-1," stated that as a medium-sized bundled carrier rocket, the "Yinli-1" significantly differs from small rockets in terms of professional coupling, large shell segment production, and daily use processes and support.

"Through modular and combinational bundled design of the 2.65-meter solid rocket engine, we achieved a leap in carrying capacity. By optimizing the flight sequence, we addressed the separation difficulties caused by the lack of synchronization of solid boosters, effectively ensuring the reliability of the booster separation process and control. Through configuration optimization, we significantly reduced the support requirements for the 'three vertical launches' mode, improving the efficiency, reliability, and safety of the ground use process," said Buxiangwei.

Additionally, as the first bundled configuration carrier rocket launched at sea, the "Yinli-1" innovatively used a flexible and maneuverable vertical transportation mode suitable for road transport (traditionally, it was transported by rail). This expands China's medium-sized carrier rocket's mobile launch capability at sea, further enriching the country's sea launch support technology and capability. This also provides valuable reference for subsequent larger volume and weight liquid carrier rockets for sea launches and sea recoveries.