{"id":65678,"date":"2025-08-13T13:04:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T10:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/ispace-launches-chinas-first-rocket-landing-barge-copying-spacex\/65678\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T13:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T10:04:37","slug":"ispace-launches-chinas-first-rocket-landing-barge-copying-spacex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/ispace-launches-chinas-first-rocket-landing-barge-copying-spacex\/65678\/","title":{"rendered":"iSpace Launches China&#8217;s First Rocket Landing Barge, Copying SpaceX"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Chinese rocket company iSpace has ambitions to run a high-volume commercial launch service, and to get there, it is taking a page from Elon Musk-owned SpaceX: an autonomous landing barge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Interstellar Glory Aerospace Technology Group&nbsp;(iSpace, not to be confused with Japanese firm iSpace Inc.)&nbsp;has developed a reusable, natural gas-fueled booster rocket in order to keep down launch costs. This parallels SpaceX&#039;s successful technology, which has come to dominate the commercial launch industry in the U.S. market. But to reuse the booster, iSpace needs a place to land it. Enter the <em>Xingji Guihang<\/em> (&quot;Interstellar Return&quot;), a large landing vessel designed to accommodate the iSpace SQX-3 rocket on its return to Earth. The vessel bears resemblance to a deck barge adaptation that SpaceX developed for the same purpose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy SpaceX<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/media\/images\/article\/Photos\/Vessels_Large\/Xingji-Guihang-interstellar-return-landing-barge-iSpace-2.jpg\" style=\"width:1000px\" \/>Courtesy iSpace<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jiangsu Runyang Shipbuilding constructed the DP-capable, unmanned-ready barge for iSpace. With a deck measuring about 130 feet by 200 feet&nbsp;and a displacement of 17,000 tonnes, it is large enough to catch a returning booster. It is the fifth vessel of its kind in the world, after SpaceX&#039;s deck barges, and it is the first in China. Peng Xiaobo, Chairman of Interstellar Glory, said at the launch ceremony that it would not be the last.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The &#039;Interstellar Return&#039; has explored and established a new standard for the integration of my country&#039;s aerospace and shipbuilding industries, and has played a . . . leading role in the construction of subsequent carrier rocket recovery ships,&quot; he said. &quot;Starting today, my country&#039;s offshore engineering ships have added the carrier rocket recovery ship type; the &#039;Interstellar Return&#039; is the concrete embodiment of our pursuit of dreams of the stars and the sea, which gives us confidence and strength.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>After sea trials, the&nbsp;<em>Xingji Guihang&nbsp;<\/em>will transit to Hainan for comprehensive exercises, followed by entry into commercial service.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>maritime-executive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Chinese rocket company iSpace has ambitions to run a high-volume commercial launch service, and to get there, it is taking a page from Elon Musk-owned SpaceX: an autonomous landing barge.&nbsp; Interstellar Glory Aerospace Technology Group&nbsp;(iSpace, not to be confused with Japanese firm iSpace Inc.)&nbsp;has developed a reusable, natural gas-fueled booster rocket in order to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[3409,1218,12614,28103,4236,1586,14273,7056],"class_list":["post-65678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-barge","tag-chinas","tag-copying","tag-ispace","tag-landing","tag-launches","tag-rocket","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/65679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}