Astronstone Raises 200 Million Yuan Ahead of Early 2027 Debut Launch
The AS-1 launch vehicle from the almost two-year-old company may be completed this year thanks to new capital.
On March 23rd, Astronstone (宇石空间) shared that they have completed their Pre-A+ funding round, raising 200 million Yuan (29 million United States Dollars, as of March 24th). That round is the company’s fourth to date, following those in March, May, and December 2025, with almost 500 million Yuan (72.5 million United States Dollars) cumulatively financed since their founding in the second half of 2024.
With the new capital, Astronstone stated they will grow their team from 170 to 300 personnel to support the development and production of their AS-1 launch vehicle. Alongside that, their Beijing (北京) research and development and a 54,000 square meter production facility in Zhuzhou (株洲市), Hunan (湖南) province, will be improved upon. The Zhuzhou facility is expected to be put into operation in the third quarter of this year (July, August, and September).
While sharing their new capital raised, the company also outlined four major tasks set for 2026, those being:
Testing of a full-scale first-stage booster recovery system.
Complete production of AS-1’s flight-worth first-stage.
Ignition and systems testing of a flight-worthy first-stage.
Assembly of the first flight-worthy AS-1.
The four tasks will need to be completed ahead of AS-1’s first flight, now set for the first quarter of 2027 (January, February, March). In December 2025, Astronstone completed a static fire of the vehicle’s second-stage and stress tests with a prototype version of the booster recovery system’s robotic arms.
Once developed, AS-1 will be a partially reusable two-stage launch vehicle able to deliver 15,700 kilograms into orbit when expended or 10,000 kilograms when reused. In its current design, the vehicle stands 70 meters tall and 4.2 meters in diameter, while being made out of stainless steel. Both stages of AS-1 are set to be fuelled by liquid methane and liquid oxygen, with nine Longyun (龙云) engines from Jiuzhou Yunjian (九州云箭) on the first-stage, generating about 700 tons of thrust to lift the 570,000-kilogram vehicle, and a single vacuum-optimized Longyun on the second-stage.
As of March 2025, Astronstone is aiming to have launch costs between 10,000 to 20,000 Yuan per kilogram of cargo, for launches costing between 100 million to 314 million Yuan. According to the company’s three founders, Tang Wen (唐文), Tian Jichao (田继超), and Zhu Xinwen (朱新文), the first few flights of AS-1 are planned to adjust the launch vehicle’s design based on real flight data, to improve cost effectiveness and flight rate.
The provincially owned investment firm Hunan Xingxiang Investment Holding Group Co Ltd (湖南兴湘投资控股集团有限公司), one participant in Astrontone’s newest funding round, is confident in the company’s approach, sharing:
“We recognize [Astronstone’s] late-mover advantage as a ‘new force in rocket manufacturing’, free from historical baggage, it directly adopts the ‘stainless steel rocket body and liquid oxygen-methane and reusable’ technology route, fully utilizing a mature supply chain to achieve efficient research and development. … The construction [of the Zhuzhou] base will effectively drive the clustering of upstream and downstream industries, forming a closed-loop industrial ecosystem of ‘Hunan satellites, Hunan rockets, and Hunan launches’.”
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