Reusable kerolox launch vehicles (Nebula-1, Nebula-2); suborbital space tourism
Deep Blue Aerospace (Jiangsu Deep Blue Aerospace Co., Ltd.) was founded by Huo Liang in November 2016. According to 36Kr’s company database, its registered address is in Tongzhou District, Nantong, Jiangsu. According to 10jqka in July 2026, it has a manufacturing base in Wuxi, and it also has a branch in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. Sources differ on which city is the headquarters, so we list the registered address and manufacturing base separately. The company focuses on reusable kerolox launch vehicles. Its first rocket, Nebula-1, is about 30.2 m tall with nine Thunder-R engines on the first stage producing about 180 t of sea-level thrust and about 2 t to LEO, and is planned to attempt first-stage recovery on its maiden flight. In September 2024 Nebula-1 completed a 10 km-class high-altitude recovery test that ended with a landing anomaly; in September 2025 the vacuum Thunder engine for the second stage completed a 308-second test, and in November 2025 the nine-engine first-stage cluster test succeeded at the Mashan test site in Jinan. The company has since moved the maiden-flight window several times: around Chinese New Year (January 2026 statement), the first half of 2026 at Dongfang Spaceport with a sea-recovery test (February), and 'the rocket is in place at a launch site in Shandong' (March); the vehicle appeared in Haiyang, Shandong in mid-March 2026, and as of 30 August 2026 no public report of a Nebula-1 maiden flight could be found. The follow-on Nebula-2 is planned at 25 t to LEO. On funding, the company received several hundred million yuan from Wuxi High-tech Zone Investment Holding in July 2024 and closed a B4 round of nearly RMB 500 million in March 2025; no new round was found between September 2025 and August 2026. In October 2024 it began selling suborbital tourism tickets for 2027 at RMB 1.5 million each.
The Leiting-RS engine completed a 100-second long-duration hot-fire test, with measured thrust of 1,297.5 kN (about 132.3 tf).
Deep Blue Aerospace and Hangzhou Aimeiyi Aviation signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Terms were not disclosed.
The 130-tonne-class Leiting-RS engine, the main propulsion for Xingyun-2, was displayed publicly for the first time in flight configuration at a commercial space exhibition in Wuxi.
In its annual report, listed company Uloka disclosed that it planned to complete a RMB 100 million strategic investment in Deep Blue Aerospace during the year. No closing announcement had been seen as of August 2026.
Reports said Nebula-1 (Nebula-1A) appeared in Haiyang, Shandong in mid-March 2026 for a launch from the Lianli Island sea-based flight and recovery test platform; two earlier three-engine first-stage hop tests ended in partial success and a loss-of-control explosion respectively. (Publish time taken from date.)
The company said it had closed out a 340-second long-duration engine test, stage-separation ground tests and the nine-engine cluster test over the past year, that the rocket was in place at a launch site in Shandong, and that it expected a first-quarter maiden flight with a first-stage recovery attempt.
An industry round-up reported that Nebula-1, Hyperbola-3 and Yuanxingzhe-1 all planned to test sea recovery on their maiden flights, with Nebula-1 targeting H1 2026 from Dongfang Spaceport.
The company planned the maiden flight around Chinese New Year 2026 with a recovery attempt; the rocket is about 30.2 m tall with about 180 t of sea-level thrust and about 2 t to LEO.
Nine Thunder-R kerolox engines fired together at the Mashan test site in Jinan, each producing about 20 t of sea-level thrust with more than three restarts; the company said the maiden flight had entered its countdown phase.
In September 2025 the vacuum Thunder-R for the second stage completed a 308-second full-envelope test at 21.1 t thrust, validating start-up, shutdown and throttling; the company's earlier mid-2025 maiden-flight target had already slipped. (Publish time taken from date; event occurred in September 2025.)
The Chinese commercial launch company's new round drew industrial investors and specialist funds; the money will go to developing and industrialising its two reusable liquid-rocket families.