CAS Space

CAS Space (中科宇航, Zhongke Aerospace), founded in 2018 and headquartered in Beijing, is a Chinese commercial launch company affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) — China's premier state research institution — providing solid-fuel small-lift launch services and developing medium-lift reusable vehicles for the growing commercial satellite constellation market.

CAS Space's operational vehicle is the Lijian-1 (also marketed internationally as Kinetica-1), a four-stage solid-fuel rocket with approximately 1.5-tonne payload capacity to 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. Lijian-1 made its debut flight in July 2022, successfully deploying six commercial satellites in a rideshare configuration — making it China's first commercially successful solid-fuel orbital rocket. Subsequent flights have delivered commercial EO and communications satellites for Chinese operators, establishing Lijian-1 as a reliable catalog launch vehicle competing with Kuaizhou-1A and other Chinese commercial solid rockets.

Beyond Lijian-1, CAS Space is developing the Lijian-2 medium-lift vehicle featuring a liquid-propellant reusable first stage with vertical landing recovery, following SpaceX Falcon 9 reusability architecture. CAS Institute resources — including propulsion laboratories, materials science expertise, and testing facilities — provide CAS Space with access to research infrastructure that pure commercial startups lack, potentially accelerating propulsion development timelines.

CAS Space competes domestically with CASC (state), CASIC (state), iSpace, Galactic Energy, Landspace, and Space Pioneer in China's expanding commercial launch market. International competition for LEO constellation launch contracts includes SpaceX, RocketLab, and ISRO's PSLV. CAS Space's institutional parentage provides government customer relationships while its commercial structure enables market-rate pricing flexibility.