Chinese rocket startup Cosmoleap announced it has raised more than 100 million yuan (approx. $14 million) to develop its Yueqian reusable rocket and a recovery system.
Concept footage of Yueqian in action looks remarkably like SpaceX’s Starship. In fact, anyone watching Yueqian fall from the sky before it’s caught by a set of mechanical “chopstick” arms might think they’re suffering from deja vu.
Last month, SpaceX made history by catching Starship’s first stage, Super Heavy booster rocket, out of the sky using its launch tower.
Unsurprisingly, online commenters were quick to point out the almost like-for-like resemblance with SpaceX’s technology in the Chinese startup’s concept.
China’s new Yueqian rocket
Cosmoleap’s full name is Beijing Dahang Transition Technology Company. The company was founded as recently as March 2024. It is incredibly ambitious for such a new venture to take on a project so similar to SpaceX’s Starship.
However, Cosmoleap has convinced investors it has the knowledge and expertise required.
The company announced it has secured the funding through a press statement on November 1. Shenergy Chengyi, Tiangchuang Capital, Legend Capital, and a number of other investment and venture capital firms participated in the funding round, according to the release.
Though Cosmoleap’s Yueqian looks a lot like Starship in the company’s render footage (above), it isn’t aiming for Mars quite yet. As SpaceNews reports, Cosmoleap is developing a rocket to “support satellite internet construction.” Starship is also designed to deploy SpaceX’s version 2 Starlink satellites.
According to Cosmoleap, the company will perform its first “Yueqian” (meaning “Leap”) flight test in 2025 or 2026.
The company’s animated Yueqian footage shows a rocket booster, that looks remarkably like SpaceX’s Super Heavy, falling out of the sky. The Yueqian booster then performs a tower and “chopstick” capture landing.
This type of landing was performed for the very first time by SpaceX with Starship on October 13.
Some online commenters took to social media to criticize the fact that Yueqian looks so much like Starship in that footage.
On X (formerly Twitter), one user said, “even the deluge [system looks the same]. They should change it up a little. Come on man.”
A rocket larger than Starship
Cosmoleap’s plan could be a tall order for a company that has never reached orbit before. However, it’s worth noting that Yueqian will be significantly smaller than Starship.
The rocket will be 246 ft (75 meters) tall, compared with Starship’s 397-ft (121-meter) stature. Yuqian will be able to carry a payload of 23,060 lbs (10,460 kg) to low Earth orbit when expendable. This will go down to 13,845 lbs (6,280 kg) when the first stage is recovered.
Interestingly, though, Cosmoleap is actually planning a larger rocket than Starship. That rocket will be 413 ft (126 meters) tall. According to the company, it will be capable of carrying 100 tons to low Earth orbit, and 36 tons when reused. The company is targeting 2030 for the first launch of this new rocket. If it manages to pull that off, it would likely have the world’s largest rocket in its hands.
All of this seems incredibly ambitious for such a new company. Many space companies have made large promises in the past, only to file for bankruptcy a while later.
However, Cosmoleap joins a promising ecosystem in China’s private space sector. Other impressive companies include Space Pioneer, iSpace, Galactic Energy, and Deep Blue Aerospace.
Space Pioneer, for example, became the first company in history to reach orbit on its first rocket launch. As a point of reference, it took SpaceX four attempts to reach the orbit with Falcon 1.
Comsoleap will hope it can emulate the incredible achievements of SpaceX, a company it so clearly looks to for inspiration. While it looks like a massive challenge lies ahead for an exceedingly young company, China’s space sector has thrown up a few surprises in recent months.
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