China’s Nayuta Space secures funding for ambitious reusable rocket plans

Nayuta Space, one of China’s emerging commercial space companies, has secured significant early funding to support its goal of developing a fully reusable rocket system.

The company announced on January 24 that it had raised "tens of millions of yuan" in pre-A round funding, which is estimated to be approximately $1.38 million, Caliber.Az reports, citing international media sources.

The entire round was funded by Quanxin Investment.

The financing will be directed towards enhancing the company's team and its ongoing development of reusable rocket technologies. This follows similar funding raised in January 2024, which was allocated to the development of Nayuta’s rocket designs.

Nayuta Space is working on a series of stainless steel rockets named Black Bird, inspired by a creature from Chinese mythology. The first model, the Xuanniao-1 (Black Bird-1), will feature nine Canglong-1 engines, which use methane and liquid oxygen and are produced by Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Technology Co. Ltd., a company specializing in commercial rocket engines.

The company's long-term ambition is to achieve full reusability for both the first and second stages of its rockets. In contrast to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which uses a reentry burn for deceleration, Nayuta plans to rely on “aerodynamic recovery” for the first stage. This approach aims to reduce the fuel requirements needed for reentry burns by using the atmosphere and the stage’s positioning to slow it down.

Furthermore, Nayuta Space intends to utilize a “Starship chopstick-style catch” for the first stage, a mechanism the company calls the “eagle grab.” This innovative system would eliminate the need for landing legs, allowing for more efficient use of the rocket’s mass. Nayuta Space claims to be the first commercial company in China to develop aerodynamic recovery technology. While recovery of the second stage remains a distant goal, Nayuta’s competitor Cosmoleap is also pursuing similar chopstick-style recovery methods for its Leap rocket.

A photo of the Black Bird-1’s first-stage fuel tank was included in Nayuta's January 24 press release.

Chinese launch startup Nayuta Space has secured tens of millions of yuan in pre-A round funding for its stainless steel Xuanniao-1 ("black bird-1" (mythical bird, not "blackbird")) reusable launcher. First stage fuel tank below. Also plans belly-first reentry & chopstick catches. pic.twitter.com/raJGEBcXRS

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) January 24, 2025

The company had previously stated in January 2024 that it aims to launch a reusable suborbital rocket by 2025 and a first orbital flight of the Black Bird-1 by 2026. However, the recent funding announcement did not clarify specific targets or timelines. Plans shared by the company in 2023 suggest that the reusable launcher will be capable of carrying 10 tons to low Earth orbit.

CEO Li Rui explained in an interview with Chinese tech website 36Kr that China’s ambitions to deploy megaconstellations require a significant increase in launch capacity. Nayuta Space seeks to support this by offering lower-cost, rapid-reusability solutions for the country's growing space sector.

Nayuta Space, alongside other newer companies like Cosmoleap, is part of a wave of Chinese firms seeking to innovate in the global spaceflight industry, following a 2014 central government policy shift that encouraged the growth of private space ventures. These newer companies, such as Landspace, Expace, and iSpace, initially focused on small solid-propellant rockets, with Nayuta Space now moving into more ambitious reusable rocket development.

By Tamilla Hasanova