Gravity-1's Third Flight to Occur During July, Vice President Says
A long hiatus was broken eight months ago, with Orienspace working to have Gravity-1 fly with some regularity to ensure it doesn’t repeat.
Over eight months ago, Orienspace’s powerful all-solid, sea-launched Gravity-1 launch vehicle performed its second flight in October 2024. That came after a twenty-one-month hiatus from its debut mission, which occurred back in January 2024, which was partly caused by internal political strife.
Since the second Gravity-1 flew, the company has been moving towards faster preparation processes at the Haiyang Oriental Spaceport (海阳东方航天港) while utilizing an existing launch vessel shared with a few other users. Efforts for that have included moving pre-flight efforts into a dedicated facility, cooperating and encouraging government bodies, and streamlining processes behind the scenes.
In February, it was reported that the third Gravity-1 mission was preparing for a constellation carrying mission, to deliver thirty 100-kilogram satellites on behalf of an unspecified customer, in the near future. Few details were added beyond that. The weeks afterwards saw the vehicles launch vessel support Jielong-3 missions in March and April, then staying around Haiyang (海阳市), Shandong (山东) province, since.
All of those updates have not come directly from Orienspace1, having instead come through local and national media, by visiting the company or finding executives at government events. In keeping with that, company Co-Founder and Vice President Peng Haomin (彭昊旻) told a June 30th commercial space sector meeting, attended by launch providers, satellite makers, and investors, that the third Gravity-1 launch vehicle will fly no earlier than mid-July, without mentioning its current preparation status.
If mid-July is a serious target, the coming days should see hardware being spotted and moved from preparation facilities to a launch vessel. That should be easy as the vehicle, standing 30 meters tall and 7.95 meters from corner to corner, is moved when inside a large insulation tent.
In the meantime, hazard notices for something launching off the coast of Shandong province, no earlier than July 12th, do align with an in-ascent inclination change maneuver demonstrated with Gravity-1’s second flight. Other sea-launched vehicles are not known to do that.
When the third Gravity-1 does launch, it will be Orienspace’s first ‘normal commercial operation’ mission, as understanding vehicle characteristics is not a core part of critical tasks. Additionally, as shared in February, two more launches are hoped to occur this year should a launch vessel be available.
Sometime in the coming years, Orienspace is also looking to fly Gravity-1 on a quarterly cadence, about once every three months, to work through a backlog of supposedly ‘hundreds’ of satellites.
The newest update from the company regarding launch efforts is a drive for safety being pushed by Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Bu Xiangwei (布向伟).